INSTRUMENT SUITE TO MEASURE SPACE & TIME RESOLVED XUV & X-RAYS FROM X-PINCHES

IT IS PROPOSED TO DESIGN, BUILD AND TEST A NOVEL SUITE OF XUV AND X-RAY MEASURING INSTRUMENTS FOR RADIATION FROM X-PINCHES. THIS SUITE WILL OFFER SPACE AND TIME RESOLUTION AND COVER EMISSIONS OVER THE ENTIRE COURSE OF THE IMPLOSION, FROM XUV (100-500 EV) TO SFT X-RAYS (1-10KEV). THE SUITE CONSISTS OF AN X-RAY CRYSTAL SPECTROMETER, AN X-RAY PINHOLE CAMERA AND AN XUV PINHOLE CAMERA. THE BASIC DETECTOR ELEMENT FOR ALL THESE INSTRUMENTS IS A 2-DIMENSIONAL ARRAY OF SILICON-PIN DIODES. THESE DIODE ARRAYS OFFER 1000:1 DYNAMICAL RANGE, _<1 NS TIME RESOLUTION WITH A CONTINUOUS READ-OUT, AND PROVIDE A CONSTANT RESONSE OVER THE ENTIRE RANGE OF MEASURED EMISSIONS, FROM 100 EV TO 10 KEV AND BEYOND. PHASE I WILL PRODUCE A PROTOTYPE X-RAY CRYSTAL SPECTROMETER WITH AN 3-ELEMENT, LINEAR PIN DIODE ARRY DETECTOR. THIS TIME RESOLVED SPECTROMETER WILL BE TESTED ON AN AVAILABLE, 10 J/PULSE X-RAY SOURCE AT SRL. IN PHASE II WE WILL UPGRADE THE LINEAR DETECTOR TO A 2-DIMENSIONAL PIN DIODE ARRAY, AS WELL AS BUILD THE X-RAY AND XUV PINHOLE CAMERAS, ALSO WITH 2-D DETECTOR ARRAYS. THIS SUITE OF INSTRUMENTS WILL BE TESTED AT SRL AND SUBSEQUENTLY FIELD TESTED AND DELIVERED TO THE PHOENIX SIMULATOR AT NSWC. PHASE III WILL FURTHER UPGRADE THE DETECTOR PACKAGE TO 100 PIXEL ARRAYS, INCLUDING AN INNOVATIVE DATA ACQUISITION APPROPACH THAT WILL ALLOW THE USE OF A FOUR-CHANNEL, FAST ARRY DIGITIZER TO CAPTURE ALL 100 PIXELS OF DATA FROM EACH SHOT. THE INTEGRATED INSTRUMENT SUITE, INCLUDING DATA ACQUISITION HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE, WILL BE DEVELOPED AS A FLEXIBLE PACKAGE THAT CAN BE USED ON EXISTING AS WELL AS FUTURE ABOVE GROUND SIMULATORS, SUCH AS DECADE.