Fast Gate: Subnanosecond Gate Detectors for Laser Radiography

X-ray radiography is used as a principal diagnostic in a wide range of hydrodynamic tests relevant to the weapons program and also for basic materials and equation-of-state science studies. The quality of the x-ray radiograph can be significantly degraded by the scattering of x-rays within the object and by components of the test system itself. Elimination of these scattered x-rays from the recorded images can either substantially improve the image contrast and signal-to-noise or allow smaller, lower-cost x-ray sources to be used. The scattered x-rays could be minimized through the use of a much shorter-duration x-ray pulse and a fast, gated detector. The short duration x-ray pulse and the fast gated detector allow detection of only those x-rays which pass through the object being radiographed. X-rays which are the result of scattering have longer path lengths and take longer to reach the target. Most of these can be eliminated if the detector if gated off before they arrive at the detector. Until recently there were no sources of high energy x-rays (1-10 MeV) with short duration (sub 100 picosecond) pulses. Now the Petawatt Laser Facility (ref 1) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been able to produce 0.1 rads at 1 meter of MeV energy x-rays in 1-0 picoseconds. Efforts are underway to significantly increase this x-ray output. The combination of the existing short-duration, Petawatt-produced x-ray pulses and an x-ray detector with sub-100-ps gate times could eliminate most of the scattered x-rays from the radiograph image and allow highly improved radiography particularly for larger, high density test objects