Surface charge compensation for a highly charged ion emission microscope.

A surface charge compensation electron flood gun has been added to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) highly charged ion (HCI) emission microscope. HCI surface interaction results in a significant charge residue being left on the surface of insulators and semiconductors. This residual charge causes undesirable aberrations in the microscope images and a reduction of the time-of-flight (T-O-F) mass resolution when studying the surfaces of insulators and semiconductors. The benefits and problems associated with HCI microscopy and recent results of the electron flood gun-enhanced HCI microscope are discussed.

Radiochemical determination of Inertial Confinement Fusion capsule compression at the National Ignition Facility.

We describe a radiochemical measurement of the ratio of isotope concentrations produced in a gold hohlraum surrounding an Inertial Confinement Fusion capsule at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). We relate the ratio of the concentrations of (n,γ) and (n,2n) products in the gold hohlraum matrix to the down-scatter of neutrons in the compressed fuel and, consequently, to the fuel's areal density. The observed ratio of the concentrations of (198m+g)Au and (196g)Au is a performance signature of ablator areal density and the fuel assembly confinement time. We identify the measurement of nuclear cross sections of astrophysical importance as a potential application of the neutrons generated at the NIF.

Characterizing time decay of bibenzyl scintillator using time correlated single photon counting.

The time decay of several scintillation materials has been measured using the time correlated single photon counting method and a new organic crystal with a highly suppressed delayed light has been identified. Results comparing the light decay of the bibenzyl crystal with a xylene based detector, which is currently installed at National Ignition Facility will be presented.

Neutron activation diagnostics at the National Ignition Facility (invited).

Neutron yields are measured at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) by an extensive suite of neutron activation diagnostics. Neutrons interact with materials whose reaction cross sections threshold just below the fusion neutron production energy, providing an accurate measure of primary unscattered neutrons without contribution from lower-energy scattered neutrons. Indium samples are mounted on diagnostic instrument manipulators in the NIF target chamber, 25-50 cm from the source, to measure 2.45 MeV deuterium-deuterium fusion neutrons through the (115)In(n,n')(115 m) In reaction. Outside the chamber, zirconium and copper are used to measure 14 MeV deuterium-tritium fusion neutrons via (90)Zr(n,2n), (63)Cu(n,2n), and (65)Cu(n,2n) reactions. An array of 16 zirconium samples are located on port covers around the chamber to measure relative yield anisotropies, providing a global map of fuel areal density variation. Neutron yields are routinely measured with activation to an accuracy of 7% and are in excellent agreement both with each other and with neutron time-of-flight and magnetic recoil spectrometer measurements. Relative areal density anisotropies can be measured to a precision of less than 3%. These measurements reveal apparent bulk fuel velocities as high as 200 km/s in addition to large areal density variations between the pole and equator of the compressed fuel.