LLNL, Livermore, California, USA
For many experiments planned on the National Ignition Facility (NIF), high-energy x-ray backlighters are an important diagnostic. NIF will be deploying this year a new Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) for generating these high-energy short-pulses. The precision of the Automatic Alignment (AA) for ARC is an important element in the success of the enhancement. A key aspect of the ARC AA is integration of the new alignment capabilities without disturbing the existing AA operations of NIF. Small pointing tolerances of 5 micron precision to a 10 micron target are required. After main amplification the beams are shortened by up to 1,000x in time in the ARC compressor vessel and aimed at backlighter targets in the NIF target chamber. Alignment Stability and Verification of the compressor gratings is critical to ensuring the ARC pulses meet their experimental specifications.
