A bremsstrahlung radiation hard x-ray source, produced by a picosecond intense laser irradiated solid target, was used to diagnose an implosion capsule at stagnation phase via Compton radiography in experiments. By performing Monte Carlo and particle-in-cell simulation, we investigated the influence of target materials and laser intensity on the >70 keV bremsstrahlung hard x-ray emission. We found that the brightness of the hard x-rays is proportional to the atomic number multiplied by area density (ZρL), which indicates that the higher Z and higher density gold or uranium material will produce the brightest hard x-rays source at the same thickness. In relativistic laser solid interactions, hot electron recirculation plays an important role in hard x-ray emission. Without recirculation, hard x-ray conversion efficiency decays when increasing the laser intensity. While the hard x-ray emission comes to the maximal saturated conversion efficiency at relativistic laser intensity if considering the electron recirculation. These results provide valuable insights into the experimental design of Compton radiography.
Measurements of Kα line and bremsstrahlung continuous x-ray emission from high-intensity laser-irradiated thin targets are presented. The experiments were performed at the SG-II UP Petawatt laser. Self-standing Sn foils varying thicknesses and Sn foils backed by the thick substrate were irradiated by the laser pulses up to 300 J of energy with peak intensity higher than 1018 W/cm2. A transmission curved crystal spectrometer and a filter-stack spectrometer were used to measure the Kα line and bremsstrahlung x-ray spectral distribution, respectively. Both Kα and 70–200 keV x-ray yields decrease 3- to 5-fold for target backed by the substrate. 2- to 4-fold reduction of Kα and 70–200 keV x-ray yields for the 8.5 μm targets relative to 50 μm targets was observed. Moreover, a significant background x-ray emission generated from the target holder reduces the ratio of signal to noise. Adopting a low-Z material holder can mitigate the x-ray background noises. This study is instructive to optimize target design for the high-intensity laser-driven Kα or continuous x-ray sources.
In the point-projection hard x-ray radiography of dense matter, for example, an inertial confinement fusion implosion capsule at stagnation time, a picosecond laser driven gold microwire is used to produce a short pulse point, bremsstrahlung hard x-ray source. The microwire was held by a low-Z CH thin substrate commonly used to promote experimental performance. We explored the influence of the low-Z thin substrate on the microwire bremsstrahlung hard x-ray source via particle-in-cell and Monte Carlo simulations. It was shown that both of the microwires, with or without the low-Z thin substrate, could emit more intense hard x-ray radiation than the radiator buried in the equal-density substrate, which benefited from efficient electron recirculation. The freestanding microwire exhibited further enhanced electron recirculation compared to that with the low-Z thin substrate, while the increased hot electrons were only present for the energetic electrons of >1 MeV. Thus, the freestanding microwire could produce significantly more intense MeV gamma x-ray emission with respect to that with the substrate, but an ignorable increment was exhibited at the softer x-ray emission of 10–200 keV. These results provided valuable insights into the design of backlighter targets in point-projection x-ray radiography, such as a freestanding microwire being preferred in MeV gamma-ray radiography, while the microwire with the CH thin substrate could be used in the 10–200 keV hard x-ray Compton radiography of an implosion capsule.
A compact broadband Compton spectrometer is designed to measure the continuous spectrum of gamma-ray sources driven by an intense laser. The incident gamma rays are converted into electrons in low-Z materials by Compton scattering. Produced by a pair of stepped magnets, a weaker-front–stronger-rear nonuniform magnetic field in the electron magnetic spectrometer is used to spectrally resolve the scattered electrons, leading to a broadband gamma-ray spectral coverage of 2–20 MeV in a compact volume. Flat imaging-plate detectors are placed near the focused imaging points of the magnetic spectrometer to record the dispersed electrons, thereby achieving an optimal spectral resolution of 6%–13% in the energy range of 3–20 MeV. The spectrometer is used successfully to measure the gamma-ray spectrum generated by the high-energy electron beams produced by a femtosecond-laser-driven wakefield.
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