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Updated: Aug 23, 2025

Laser-heating and Radiance Spectrometry for the Study of Nuclear Materials in Conditions Simulating a Nuclear Power Plant Accident
Published on: December 14, 2017
Development of an x-ray radiography platform to study laser-direct-drive energy coupling at the National Ignition
L Ceurvorst1, W Theobald1, M J Rosenberg1
1Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623-1299, USA.
Abstract:
A platform has been developed to study laser-direct-drive energy coupling at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) using a plastic sphere target irradiated in a polar-direct-drive geometry to launch a spherically converging shock wave. To diagnose this system evolution, eight NIF laser beams are directed onto a curved Cu foil to generate Heα line emission at a photon energy of 8.4 keV. These x rays are collected by a 100-ps gated x-ray imager in the opposing port to produce temporally gated radiographs. The platform is capable of acquiring images during and after the laser drive launches the shock wave. A backlighter profile is fit to the radiographs, and the resulting transmission images are Abel inverted to infer radial density profiles of the shock front and to track its temporal evolution. The measurements provide experimental shock trajectories and radial density profiles that are compared to 2D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations using cross-beam energy transfer and nonlocal heat-transport models.
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