A dual-channel, curved-crystal spectrograph for petawatt laser, x-ray backlighter source studies.
A dual-channel, curved-crystal spectrograph was designed to measure time-integrated x-ray spectra in the approximately 1.5 to 2 keV range (6.2-8.2 A wavelength) from small-mass, thin-foil targets irradiated by the VULCAN petawatt laser focused up to 4x10(20) W/cm(2). The spectrograph consists of two cylindrically curved potassium-acid-phthalate crystals bent in the meridional plane to increase the spectral range by a factor of approximately 10 compared to a flat crystal. The device acquires single-shot x-ray spectra with good signal-to-background ratios in the hard x-ray background environment of petawatt laser-plasma interactions. The peak spectral energies of the aluminum He(alpha) and Ly(alpha) resonance lines were approximately 1.8 and approximately 1.0 mJ/eV sr (approximately 0.4 and 0.25 J/A sr), respectively, for 220 J, 10 ps laser irradiation.
Theobald
W
W
Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623-1299, USA.
Stoeckl
C
C
Jaanimagi
P A
PA
Nilson
P M
PM
Storm
M
M
Meyerhofer
D D
DD
Sangster
T C
TC
Hey
D
D
MacKinnon
A J
AJ
Park
H-S
HS
Patel
P K
PK
Shepherd
R
R
Snavely
R A
RA
Key
M H
MH
King
J A
JA
Zhang
B
B
Stephens
R B
RB
Akli
K U
KU
Highbarger
K
K
Daskalova
R L
RL
Van Woerkom
L
L
Freeman
R R
RR
Green
J S
JS
Gregori
G
G
Lancaster
K
K
Norreys
P A
PA