LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
GA, San Diego, California, USA
Kentech Instruments Ltd., Wallingford, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
X-ray cameras on inertial confinement fusion facilities can determine the implosion velocity and symmetry of NIF targets by recording the emission of X-rays from the target gated as a function of time. To capture targets that undergo ignition and thermonuclear burn, however, cameras with less than 10 picosecond shutter times are needed. A Collaboration between LLNL, General Atomics and Kentech Instruments has resulted in the design and construction of an X-ray camera which converts an X-ray image to an electron image, which is stretched, and then coupled to a conventional shuttered electron camera to meet this criteria. This talk discusses target diagnostic instrumentation and software used to control the DIXI diagnostic and seamlessly integrate it into the National Ignition Facility (NIF) Integrated Computer Control System (ICCS).
LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a stadium-sized facility that contains a 192-beam, 1.8-Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, ultraviolet laser system together with a 10-meter diameter target chamber. We describe techniques used to synchronize data acquired by gated x-ray imagers with laser beams at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Synchronization is achieved by collecting data from multiple beam groups with spatial and temporal separation in a single NIF shot. By optimizing the experimental setup and data analysis, repeatable measurements of 15ps or better have been achieved. This demonstrates that the facility timing system, laser, and target diagnostics, are highly stable over year-long time scales.
