Time resolved x-ray image of laser plasma interactions using a dilation framing camera

Abstract

A dilation X-ray framing camera based on a gated microchannel plate (MCP) and a time-dilation technology is reported. The camera dilates the electron signal by a pulsed photo-cathode (PC) to achieve high temporal resolution. The PC and MCP are separated, and there is a 50 cm drift space between them. The PC is applied with a 3.1 V/ps gradient excitation pulse plus −3 kV DC bias voltage, and the MCP is driven by a gating pulse with width of 220 ps and amplitude of −1.9 kV with −500 V bias. The temporal resolution of the camera is characterized using a short X-ray pulse produced by a laser beam focusing on a planar iron target. A stripe original image is obtained and the experimental results show that the temporal resolution of the camera is better than 10 ps.