Development of a neutron imaging diagnostic for inertial confinement fusion experiments

Abstract

Pinhole imaging of the neutron production in laser-driven inertial confinement fusion experiments can provide important information about the performance of various capsule designs. This requires the development of systems capable of spatial resolutions on the order of 5 μm or less for source strengths of 1015 and greater. We have initiated a program which will lead to the achievement of such a system to be employed at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) facility. Calculated neutron output distributions for various capsule designs will be presented to illustrate the information which can be gained from neutron imaging and to demonstrate the requirements for a useful system. We will describe the lines-of-sight available at NIF for neutron imaging and explain how these can be utilized to reach the required parameters for neutron imaging. We will describe initial development work to be carried out at the Omega facility and the path which will lead to systems to be implemented at NIF. Beginning this year, preliminary experiments will be aimed at achieving resolutions of 30–60 μm for direct-drive capsules with neutron outputs of about 1014. The main thrust of these experiments will be to understand issues related to the fabrication and alignment of small diameter pinhole systems as well as the problems associated with signal-to-background ratios at the image plane. Subsequent experiments at Omega will be described. These efforts will be aimed at achieving resolutions of about 10 μm. Proposed developments for new imaging systems as well as further refinement of pinhole techniques will be presented.