Hotspot electron temperature from x-ray continuum measurements on the NIF.

Abstract

We report on measurements of the electron temperature in the hotspot of inertially confined, layered, spherical implosions on the National Ignition Facility using a differential filtering diagnostic. Measurements of the DT and DD ion temperatures using neutron time-of-flight detectors are complicated by the contribution of hot spot motion to the peak width, which produce an apparent temperature higher than the thermal temperature. The electron temperature is not sensitive to this non-thermal velocity and is thus a valuable input to interpreting the stagnated hot spot conditions. Here we show that the current differential filtering diagnostic provides insufficient temperature resolution for the hot spot temperatures of interest. We then propose a new differential filter configuration utilizing larger pinhole size to increase spectral fluence, as well as thicker filtration. This new configuration will improve measurement uncertainty by more than a factor of three, allowing for a more accurate hotspot temperature.