Development of Compton radiography of inertial confinement fusion implosions

Abstract

An important diagnostic tool for inertial confinement fusion will be time-resolved radiographic imaging of the dense cold fuel surrounding the hot spot. The measurement technique is based on point-projection radiography at photon energies from 60 to 200 keV where the Compton effect is the dominant contributor to the opacity of the fuel or pusher. We have successfully applied this novel Compton radiography technique to the study of the final compression of directly driven plastic capsules at the OMEGA facility [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)]. The radiographs have a spatial and temporal resolution of ∼10 μm and ∼10 ps, respectively. A statistical accuracy of ∼0.5% in transmission per resolution element is achieved, allowing localized measurements of areal mass densities to 7% accuracy. The experimental results show 3D nonuniformities and lower than 1D expected areal densities attributed to drive asymmetries and hydroinstabilities.