X-ray imaging indicates magnetized liner inertial fusion (MagLIF) stagnation columns have a complicated quasi-helical structure with significant variations in x-ray brightness along the column. In this work, we describe MagLIF experiments aimed at controlling these stagnation structures by varying the initial liner geometry and composition. First, by varying the initial aspect ratio of the liner, we demonstrate a change in the stagnation structures that is consistent with helical magneto Rayleigh–Taylor (MRT) instabilities feedthrough from the outer-to-inner surfaces of the liner. Second, to minimize the seed for such instabilities, we incorporate a dielectric coating on the outer surface of the beryllium liner, which has previously been shown to reduce the growth of the electrothermal instability, a likely seed for MRT growth. Using this coating, we achieve a stagnation column with significantly reduced helical structure and axial variation in x-ray brightness. We discuss how this coating changes the evolution of structures through stagnation along with the spatial uniformity of neutron production. Finally, we show that these more uniform stagnations also result in improved reproducibility in stagnation temperatures and primary DD neutron yield.

Numerous x-ray diagnostics at the Z facility, time-resolved and time-integrated, would benefit from a local calibrated x-ray source. For many years, Z has used low-power Manson x-ray sources to provide some characterization information for components of Z diagnostics below 30 keV. More recently, we have acquired TruFocus x-ray sources, which operate at voltages up to 100 kV depending on the anode material and model. These DC sources have demonstrated good stability and repeatability. Absolute calibrations of either sources or detectors usually involve another calibrated detector from another source, which has not been readily available locally. Therefore, we have adopted the strategy of characterizing a sensitive semiconductor diode detector by controlling or inferring the active volume. This characterized detector is then used to scale the Manson x-ray spectral shape as measured by an Amptek energy-resolving detector. The result agrees well with the modeled source spectrum. We can apply this technique to the TruFocus as well.

The Z machine is a current driver producing up to 30 MA in 100 ns that utilizes a wide range of diagnostics to assess accelerator performance and target behavior conduct experiments that use the Z target as a source of radiation or high pressures. We review the existing suite of diagnostic systems, including their locations and primary configurations. The diagnostics are grouped in the following categories: pulsed power diagnostics, x-ray power and energy, x-ray spectroscopy, x-ray imaging (including backlighting, power flow, and velocimetry), and nuclear detectors (including neutron activation). We will also briefly summarize the primary imaging detectors we use at Z: image plates, x-ray and visible film, microchannel plates, and the ultrafast x-ray imager. The Z shot produces a harsh environment that interferes with diagnostic operation and data retrieval. We term these detrimental processes "threats " of which only partial quantifications and precise sources are known. We summarize the threats and describe techniques utilized in many of the systems to reduce noise and backgrounds.

Accurate understanding of x-ray diagnostics is crucial for both interpreting high-energy-density experiments and testing simulations through quantitative comparisons. X-ray diagnostic models are complex. Past treatments of individual x-ray diagnostics on a case-by-case basis have hindered universal diagnostic understanding. Here, we derive a general formula for modeling the absolute response of non-focusing x-ray diagnostics, such as x-ray imagers, one-dimensional space-resolved spectrometers, and x-ray power diagnostics. The present model is useful for both data modeling and data processing. It naturally accounts for the x-ray crystal broadening. The new model verifies that standard approaches for a crystal response can be good approximations, but they can underestimate the total reflectivity and overestimate spectral resolving power by more than a factor of 2 in some cases near reflectivity edge features. We also find that a frequently used, simplified-crystal-response approximation for processing spectral data can introduce an absolute error of more than an order of magnitude and the relative spectral radiance error of a factor of 3. The present model is derived with straightforward geometric arguments. It is more general and is recommended for developing a unified picture and providing consistent treatment over multiple x-ray diagnostics. Such consistency is crucial for reliable multi-objective data analyses.

The self-magnetic pinch (SMP) diode is a type of radiographic diode used to generate an intense electron beam for radiographic applications. At Sandia National Laboratories, SMP was the diode load for the six-cavity radiographic integrated test stand inductive voltage adder (IVA) driver operated in a magnetically insulated transmission line (MITL). The MITL contributes a flow current in addition to the current generated within the diode itself. Extensive experiments with a MITL of 40 Ω load impedance [T. J. Renk et al., Phys. Plasmas 29, 023105 (2022)] indicate that the additional flow current leads to results similar to what might be expected from a conventional high-voltage interface driver, where flow current is not present. However, when the MITL flow impedance was increased to 80 Ω, qualitatively different diode behavior was observed. This includes large retrapping waves suggestive of an initial coupling to low impedance as well as diode current decreasing with time even as the total current does not. A key observation is that the driver generates total current (flow + diode) consistent with the flow impedance of the MITL used. The case is made in this paper that the 80 Ω MITL experiments detailed here can only be understood when the IVA-MITL-SMP diode is considered as a total system. The constraint of fixed total current plus the relatively high flow impedance limits the ability of the diode (whether SMP or other type) to act as an independent load. An unexpected new result is that in tracking the behavior of the electron strike angle on the converter as a function of time, we observed that the conventional cIVx “Radiographic” radiation scaling (where x ∼ 2.2) begins to break down for voltages above 8 MV, and cubic scaling is required to recover accurate angle tracking.

characteristic lines generated by a petawatt-driven Mo foil. This technique will be applied to shock and ramp-loaded single crystals on the Omega EP laser. Pulsed x-ray diffraction of shock- and ramp-compressed materials is an exciting new technique that can give insight into the dynamic behavior of materials at ultra-high pressure not achievable by any other means to date. X-ray diffraction can be used to determine not only the phase and compression of the lattice at high pressure, but by probing the lattice compression on a timescale equal to the 3D relaxation time of the material, information about dislocation mechanics, including dislocation multiplication rate and velocity, can also be derived. Both Bragg, or reflection, and Laue, or transmission, diffraction have been developed for shock-loaded low-Z crystalline structures such as Cu, Fe, and Si using nano-second scale low-energy implosion and He-{alpha} x-ray backlighters. However, higher-Z materials require higher x-ray probe energies to penetrate the samples, such as in Laue, or probe deep enough into the target, as in the case of Bragg diffraction. Petawatt laser-generated K{alpha} x-ray backlighters have been developed for use in high-energy radiography of dense targets and other HED applications requiring picosecond-scale burst of hard x-rays. While short pulse lasers are very efficient at producing high-energy x-rays, the characteristic x-rays produced in these thin foil targets are superimposed on a broad bremsstrahlung background and can easily saturate a detector if careful diagnostic shielding and experimental geometry are not implemented. A new diagnostic has been designed to measure Bragg diffraction from laser-driven crystal targets using characteristic x-rays from a short-pulse laser backlighter on the Omega EP laser. The Bragg Diffraction Imager, or BDI, is a TIM-mounted instrument consisting of a heavily shielded enclosure made from 3/8-inch thick Heavymet (W-Fe-Ni alloy) and a precisely positioned beam bock, attached to the main enclosure by an Aluminum arm. The beam block is made of 1-inch thick, Al-coated Heavymet and serves to block the x-rays directly from the petawatt backlight, while allowing the diffraction x-rays from the crystal to pass to the enclosure. A schematic of the BDI is shown in Fig. 1a. Image plates are used as the x-ray detector and are loaded through the top of the diagnostic in an Aluminum, light-tight cartridge. The front of the enclosure can be fitted with various filters to maximize the diffraction signal-to-noise.

Radiographic diodes focus on an intense electron beam to a small spot size to minimize the source area of energetic photons for radiographic interrogation. The self-magnetic pinch (SMP) diode has been developed as such a source and operated as a load for the six-cavity radiographic integrated test stand (RITS-6) inductive voltage adder driver. While experiments support the generally accepted conclusion that a 1:1 aspect diode (cathode diameter equals anode–cathode gap) delivers optimum SMP performance, such experiments also show that reducing the cathode diameter, while reducing spot size, also results in reduced radiation dose, by as much as 50%, and degraded shot reproducibility. Analysis of the effective electron impingement angle on the anode converter with time made possible by a newly developed dose-rate array diagnostic indicates that fast-developing oscillations of the angle are correlated with early termination of the radiation pulse on many of the smaller-diameter SMP shots. This behavior as a function of relative cathode size persists through experiments with output voltages and currents up to 11.5 MV and 225 kA, respectively, and with spot sizes below approximately few millimeters. Since simulations to date have not predicted such oscillatory behavior, considerable discussion of the angle behavior of SMP shots is made to lend credence to the inference. There is clear anecdotal evidence that DC heating of the SMP diode region leads to stabilization of this oscillatory behavior. This is the first of two papers on the performance of the SMP diode on the RITS-6 accelerator.

We present the technology-aided computer design (TCAD) device simulation and modeling of a silicon p-i-n diode for detecting time-dependent X-ray radiation. We show that the simulated forward and reverse breakdown current-voltage characteristics agree well with the measured data under nonradiation environment by only calibrating carrier lifetimes for the forward bias case and avalanche model critical fields for the reverse bias condition. Using the calibrated parameters and other nominal material properties, we simulated the radiation responses of the p-i-n diode and compared with experimental data when the diode was exposed to X-ray radiation at Sandia's Saturn facility and the Idaho State University (ISU) TriMeV facility. For Saturn's Gaussian dose-rate pulses, we show three findings from TCAD simulations. First, the simulated photocurrents are in excellent agreement with the measured data for two dose-rate pulses with peak values of 1.16 x 10(10) and 1.88 x 10(10) rad(Si)/s. Second, the simulation results of high dose-rate pulses predict increased delayed photocurrents with longer time tails in the diode electrical responses due to excess carrier generation. Third, simulated peak values of diode radiation responses versus peak dose rates at different bias conditions provide useful guidance to determine the dose-rate range that the p-i-n diode can reliably detect in experiment. For TriMeV's non-Gaussian dose-rate pulse, our simulated diode response is in decent agreement with the measured data without further calibration. We also studied the effects of device geometry, recombination process, and dose-rate enhancement via TCAD simulations to understand the higher measured response in the time after the peak dose-rate radiation for the p-i-n diode exposed to TriMeV irradiation.

It is very difficult to measure the voltage of the load on the Saturn accelerator. Time - resolved measurements such as vacuum voltmeters and V - dot monitors are impractical at best and completely change the pulsed power behavior at the load at worst. We woul d like to know the load voltage of the machine so that we could correctly model the radiation transport and tune our x - ray unfold methodology and circuit simulations of the accelerator. Step wedges have been used for decades as a tool to measure the end - point energies of high energy particle beams. Typically, the tech nique is used for multi - megavolt accelerators, but we have adapted it to Saturn?s modest <2 MV end - point energy and modified the standard bremsstrahlung x - ray source to extract the electron b eam without changing the physics of the load region. We found cle ar evidence of high energy electrons >2 MV. We also attempted to unfold an electron energy spectrum using a machine learning algorithm and while these results come with large uncertainties , t hey qualitatively agree with PIC simulation results. ACKNOWL EDGEMENTS The authors would like thank Jim Moore for the use of his laboratory and pulser hardware to calibrate our B - dot current monitors. We would like to thank the staff and crew of org. 1342 for their support during our Saturn experiment. Thanks to Chris Grabowski for his effort to calibrate the V2 and B3 radiochromic films at the Gamma Irradiation Facility in TA - V. Warren Davis was extremely helpful in his advice on how to setup and t une the neural network algorithm. Machine learning is still very much an art and Warren?s tips helped us overcome our confusion about why the neural network predictor was getting stuck on training set data.

Radiographic diodes focus an intense electron beam to a small spot size to minimize the source area of energetic photons for radiographi c interrogation. The self - magnetic pinch (SMP) diode has been developed as such a source and operated as a load for the RITS - 6 Inductive Voltage Adder (IVA) driver. While experiments support the generally accepted conclusion that a 1:1 aspect diode (cathod e diameter equals anode - cathode gap) delivers optimum SMP performance, such experiments also show that reducing the cathode diameter, while reducing spot size, also results in reduced radiation dose, by as much as 50%, and degraded shot reproducibility. An alyzation of the effective electron impingement angle on the anode converter with time made possible by a newly developed dose - rate array diagnostic indicates that fast - developing oscillations of the angle are correlated with early termination of the radia tion pulse on many of the smaller - diameter SMP shots. This behavior as a function of relative cathode size persists through experiments with output voltages and currents up to 11.5 MV and 225 kA, respectively, and with spot sizes below ~ few mm. Since simu lations to date have not predicted such oscillatory behavior, considerable discussion of the angle - behavior of SMP shots is made to lend credence to the inference. There is clear anecdotal evidence that DC heating of the SMP diode region leads to stabiliza tion of this oscillatory behavior. This is the first of two papers on the performance of the SMP diode on the RITS - 6 accelerator .

The Saturn accelerator has historically lack ed the capability to measure time - resolved spectra for its 3 - ring bremsstrahlung x - ray source. This project aim ed to create a spectr ometer called AXIOM to provide this capability. The project had three major development pillar s: hardware, simulation , and unf old code. The hardware consists of a ring of 24 detectors around an existing x - ray pinhole camera. The diagnostic was fielded on t wo shots at Saturn and over 100 shots at the TriMeV accelerator at Idaho Accelerator Center. A new Saturn x - ray environment si mulation was created using measured data to validate . This simulation allows for time - resolved spectra c omputation to compare the experimental results . The AXIOM - Unfold code is a new parametric unfold code using modern global optimizers and un certainty quantification. The code was written in Python , uses Gitlab version control and issue tracking , and has been developed with long term code support and maintenance in mind.

We have commissioned a new time-resolved, x-ray imaging diagnostic for the Z facility. The primary intended application is for diagnosing the stagnation behavior of Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) and similar targets. We have a variety of imaging systems at Z, both time-integrated and time-resolved, that provide valuable x-ray imaging information, but no system at Z up to this time provides a combined high-resolution imaging with multi-frame time resolution; this new diagnostic, called TRICXI for Time Resolved In-Chamber X-ray Imager, is meant to provide time-resolved spatial imaging with high resolution. The multi-frame camera consists of a microchannel plate camera. A key component to achieving the design goals is to place the instrument inside the Z vacuum chamber within 2 m of the load, which necessitates a considerable amount of x-ray shielding as well as a specially designed, independent vacuum system. A demonstration of the imaging capability for a series of MagLIF shots is presented. Predictions are given for resolution and relative image irradiance to guide experimenters in choosing the desired configuration for their experiments.

X-ray radiography has been used to diagnose a wide variety of experiments at the Z facility including inertial confinement fusion capsule implosions, the growth of the magneto-Rayleigh-Taylor instability in solid liners, and the development of helical structures in axially magnetized liner implosions. In these experiments, the Z Beamlet laser (1 kJ, 1 ns) was used to generate the x-ray source. An alternate x-ray source is desirable in experiments where the Z Beamlet laser is used for another purpose (e.g., preheating the fuel in magnetized liner inertial fusion experiments) or when multiple radiographic lines of sight are necessary.

The goals of an electron beam-driven radiographic source are the focusing of high current at high voltage to a minimal spot size with excellent shot-to-shot reproducibility. The Self-Magnetic Pinch (SMP) diode makes use of such an intense electron beam impinging on a high-atomic weight (tantalum) converter, a counter-streaming ion beam to help minimize the spot size, and operation in a magnetic field-free diode region which further encourages small spot size. Through a series of diode development experiments, output voltages up to 12.5 MV and output currents up to 225 kA have been characterized, with resulting spot sizes below ~ few mm. Scaling studies with parameter variation, such as diode aspect ratio and anode-cathode (A-K) gap variation, give systematic validation to what has heretofore been noted anecdotally by other research groups. While the lack of an imbedded magnetic field helps minimize the SMP spot size, a secondary result may be the generation of beam instabilities which can terminate the radiation pulse. There is anecdotal evidence that in-situ DC heating of the diode region can help stabilize the beam pinch. Clear experimental evidence exists that DC heating/RF cleaning results in better control over the counter-streaming ion population. Expanded use of spatial dose-rate detection is shown to yield new insights into electron beam dynamics in the SMP diode. An attendant study of the SMP diode as a load for an Inductive Voltage Adder (IVA) driver leads to insights into the behavior of the IVA-SMP diode configuration, viewed as a total system, and yields constraints on the overall impedance behavior of the SMP diode load.