X-ray crystal imagers for inertial confinement fusion experiments (invited)

We report on our continued development of high resolution monochromatic x-ray imaging system based on spherically curved crystals. This system can be extensively used in the relevant experiments of the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program. The system is currently used, but not limited to diagnostics of the targets ablatively accelerated by the Nike KrF laser. A spherically curved quartz crystal (2d=6.68703 Angstrom, R=200mm) has been used to produce monochromatic backlit images with the He-like Si resonance line (1865 eV) as the source of radiation. Another quartz crystal (2d=8.5099 Angstrom, R=200mm) with the H-like Mg resonance line (1473 eV) has been used for backlit imaging with higher contrast. The spatial resolution of the x-ray optical system is 1.7 μm in selected places and 2 - 3 μm over a larger area. A second crystal with a separate backlighter was added to the imaging system. This makes it possible to make use of all four strips of the framing camera. Time resolved, 20x magnified, backlit monochromatic images of CH planar targets driven by the Nike facility have been obtained with spatial resolution of 2.5 μm in selected places and 5 μm over the focal spot of the Nike laser. We are exploring the enhancement of this technique to the higher and lower backlighter energies. copyright 1999 American Institute of Physics