Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 7, 2026

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation
Published on: February 4, 2017
Images of the laser entrance hole from the static x-ray imager at NIF
M B Schneider1, O S Jones, N B Meezan
1Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551-0808, USA. schneider5@llnl.gov
Abstract:
The static x-ray imager at the National Ignition Facility is a pinhole camera using a CCD detector to obtain images of Hohlraum wall x-ray drive illumination patterns seen through the laser entrance hole (LEH). Carefully chosen filters, combined with the CCD response, allow recording images in the x-ray range of 3-5 keV with 60 μm spatial resolution. The routines used to obtain the apparent size of the backlit LEH and the location and intensity of beam spots are discussed and compared to predictions. A new soft x-ray channel centered at 870 eV (near the x-ray peak of a 300 eV temperature ignition Hohlraum) is discussed.

