Qualification of a high-efficiency, gated spectrometer for x-ray Thomson scattering on the National Ignition Facility

We have designed, built, and successfully fielded a highly efficient and gated Bragg crystal spectrometer for x-ray Thomson scattering measurements on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). It utilizes a cylindrically curved Highly Oriented Pyrolytic Graphite crystal. Its spectral range of 7.4-10 keV is optimized for scattering experiments using a Zn He-α x-ray probe at 9.0 keV or Mo K-shell line emission around 18 keV in second diffraction order. The spectrometer has been designed as a diagnostic instrument manipulator-based instrument for the NIF target chamber at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA. Here, we report on details of the spectrometer snout, its novel debris shield configuration and an in situ spectral calibration experiment with a Brass foil target, which demonstrated a spectral resolution of E/ΔE = 220 at 9.8 keV.