Development of online quasimonochromatic X-ray backlighter for high energy density physics studies

Monochromatic X-ray backlighting has been employed with great success in various laser plasma experiments including inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research. However, implementation of a monochromatic backlighting system typically requires extremely high quality spherically bent crystals which are difficult to manufacture and are also expensive. In this paper, we present a quasimonochromatic X-ray backlighting system using flat thallium acid pthalate (TAP) crystal. The detailed characterization of the system is discussed. The X-ray backlighter spectral range is caliberated using Cu spectrum in the spectral range 7–9 A (1.38–1.77 keV). Gold plasma produces continuous X-ray spectrum (M band) in this range. The spectral, spatial and temporal resolutions of the system measured are 30 mA, 50 μm and 1.5 ns respectively. The spectral width of the X-ray pulse is 2 A (ΔE = 0.39 keV).