title: Development of a Big Area BackLighter for high energy density experiments.
abstract: A very large area (7.5 mm(2)) laser-driven x-ray backlighter, termed the Big Area BackLighter (BABL) has been developed for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to support high energy density experiments. The BABL provides an alternative to Pinhole-Apertured point-projection Backlighting (PABL) for a large field of view. This bypasses the challenges for PABL in the equatorial plane of the NIF target chamber where space is limited because of the unconverted laser light that threatens the diagnostic aperture, the backlighter foil, and the pinhole substrate. A transmission experiment using 132 kJ of NIF laser energy at a maximum intensity of 8.52 × 10(14) W/cm(2) illuminating the BABL demonstrated good conversion efficiency of >3.5% into K-shell emission producing ~4.6 kJ of high energy x rays, while yielding high contrast images with a highly uniform background that agree well with 2D simulated spectra and spatial profiles.
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Flippo
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Kline
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: F W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Doss
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: E N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Loomis
authors.affiliation: General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608, San Diego, California 92121, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Emerich
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Devolder
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: T J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: K B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Fournier
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Kalantar
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623, USA.
authors.forename: S P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Regan
authors.affiliation: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Barrios
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Merritt
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: T S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: I L
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Tregillis
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Welser-Sherrill
authors.affiliation: Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87507, USA.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Fincke