A CO2 laser was used to irradiate hollow polystyrene cylinders along their axis. The laser-generated high-energy electrons appear to uniformly heat the cylinder throughout its volume and the cylinder explodes. The imploding and stagnation character of the exploding cylinder gives rise to a long x-ray pulse, much longer than the laser pulse, and to a peak emission that occurs after the laser pulse. The fast ions that are generated appear not to interact with the thermal plasma. Two-dimensional calculations that reproduce much of the experimental x-ray signature and observed hydrodynamic flow are presented.

We are presenting test results which compare spatio-temporal resolution characteristics of three commercially manufactured soft x-ray streak cameras and a prototype of the C650X soft x-ray streak camera made at CEA Limeil-Valenton using an RTC P650X streak tube' and now commercially available from the Thomson CSF2 company.