An x-ray imaging system for hard-to-reach facility diagnosis using femtosecond laser-plasma

For hard-to-reach facility diagnosis, a radiographic testing system that consists of a compact laser-plasma X-ray (LPX) generator and a compact X-ray imaging sensor is shown to be competitive to that based on the isotope imaging. A 1-mm-thick Csl charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor supplied with a cooling system was developed to tolerate a long X-ray exposition. Even without optimization of X-ray yield from a Ta thin film irradiated by 230 mJ, 70 fs laser pulses, clear X-ray images of a SUS304 pipe (outer diameter 34 mm with 4.5 mm thickness) with an elbow were produced. (author)