A numerical study on charged-particle scattering and radiography of a steep density gradient

Abstract

Electron and proton radiography of polystyrene planar targets with different density gradients is studied by Monte Carlo simulations in a regime that the incident charged-particle's kinetic energy is much higher than its energy loss in the targets. It is shown that by scattering of the electrons or protons, the density gradient causes modulations of the charged-particle beam transmitted from the target and the modulation contrast is sensitive only to a steep gradient, which suggests a novel diagnostic method wherein a steep density gradient could be distinguished from the scattering of a charged-particle beam in radiography. By using a 100-MeV charged-particle beam, it is found that the modulation is evident for a steep density gradient of width smaller than 1 μm for electron radiography and 0.6 μm for proton radiography, respectively, but almost negligible when the density gradient width is greater than 1 μm. The feasibility of diagnosing the steep density gradients in compressed matter is confirmed by the simulations of radiographing a laser-ablated planar foil. Simulations also show that it is possible to diagnose the density gradients inside a multilayered spherical capsule.