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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Emission Spectroscopic Boundary Layer Investigation during Ablative Material Testing in Plasmatron
Published on: June 9, 2016
Measured response of multilayers to damaging fluxes
K J Gray1, L V Knight, B G Peterson
1Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602.
Abstract:
We have measured the response of WC/C multilayers to x-ray fluxes on the order of 200 MW/cm2 using laser-generated plasmas and found that these multilayers will maintain near peak reflectivity for at least 1 ns but are eventually destroyed. A description of the experiments and data analysis methods is given. Transmission electron micrographs of WC/C multilayers before and after irradiation show melting to be the dominant damage mechanism. The results of the experiments will be compared with simulations.
