Diagnostic and platform development
Many researchers come to JLF to test and develop diagnostics and experimental platforms, bringing their realized designs back to their home institutions.
Laser diagnostics are a keystone of any successful high-energy-density science experiment. A diagnostic is typically a camera, single piece of hardware, or a small apparatus that allows a researcher to see and understand what is taking place in their laser experiment. In comparison to a diagnostic, a platform is an entire experimental setup, diagnostics included, used to perform a specific laser irradiation experiment.
Examples of JLF-developed diagnostics
Dilation X-ray Imager (DIXI)
Now available for use at LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, DIXI is a two-dimensional x-ray imager with a temporal resolution of about five picoseconds that can record a frame every five trillionths of a second—the equivalent of 200 billion images a second. Diagnostics such as this play a vital role in measuring the performance of fusion ignition experiments at NIF.
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- Instruments Peer Deeply into Laser Experiments
- Diagnostics were crucial to LLNL's historic ignition shot
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2D Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector (VISAR)
A novel capability for investigating the heterogeneous response of dynamically driven materials. With VISAR, researchers can optically probe materials and objects driven by dynamic processes, capturing a time-resolved, two-dimensional map of the velocity of a reflecting surface over a one-millimeter field of view.
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Examples of JLF-developed platforms
- Laser wakefield acceleration
- Pair plasmas and positrons
- Proton isochoric heating
- Ramp compression
- X-ray diffraction
- X-ray Thomson scattering
Laser wakefield acceleration
Researchers use short, intense laser pulses to speed up electrons in a low-density plasma, producing electron plasma waves in which electrons can be trapped and accelerated to gigaelectronvolt energies in a centimeter scale. This type of acceleration can be used to show ultrafast electronic and molecular changes in the accelerated material, possibly revealing details that have been previously unseen.
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- Betatron X Rays Bring Focus to a Very Small, Very Fast World
- Simulations Explain High-Energy-Density Experiments (PDF)
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Pair plasmas and positrons
When intense laser light is focused into a gold foil, high-energy radiation traverses the material and creates electron–positron pairs as it interacts with the nuclei of the gold atoms along its path. The study of relativistic electron–positron pair plasmas is important for understanding high-energy astrophysical systems, such as those associated with neutron star and black hole environments.
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- Illuminating the science of black holes and gamma-ray bursts using high-power lasers
- Doubling creation of antimatter using same laser energy
- ARC results provide a ‘pleasant surprise’
- Focusing target gives powerful boost to NIF’s ARC
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Proton isochoric heating
This platform enables the study of warm dense matter and hot dense matter plasma physics by rapidly heating a substantial volume of high-density material before samples can hydrodynamically expand. By precisely controlling the energy deposition, researchers can explore fundamental processes and material properties in very unique regimes relevant to the interior of astrophysical bodies.
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Ramp compression
These experiments compress a material without forming a shock wave, enabling researchers to explore more pressure, temperature, and density combinations than traditional shock compression experiments. At JLF, the ramp compression platform is used by researchers to determine the relationship between compression rate and the timescale of plasticity and the onset of structural phase transformations at high pressures.
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X-ray diffraction
A technique used to determine a sample’s composition or evolution of its crystalline structure when exposed to ultrahigh pressures and temperatures. The resulting data can provide insights into the internal dynamics of the Earth’s core, as well as the cores of other terrestrial exoplanets.
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X-ray Thomson scattering
Measures the electron and ion temperature, density, ionization state, and dynamic structure of warm dense plasmas occurring in giant planets and stars. Experimental stations at the JLF can create these extreme states of matter (long pulse laser beam) and x-ray sources with high temporal resolution (short-pulse laser beam) in pump‒probe experiments to study the dynamics of shock compression.
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- New NIF experimental platform will probe warm dense matter
- Experiments shed light on pressure-driven ionization in giant planets and stars
- New way to study how elements mix in giant planets
- Researchers Examine Hydrogen Under High Pressure
Contacts
The JLF team continues to refine and enhance diagnostics and platforms for use at other laser facilities while also augmenting its own suite of experimental tools for improved scientific results.
For information on developing or testing a diagnostic or platform at JLF:
Send an email to jlf-diagnostics [at] llnl.gov (jlf-diagnostics[at]llnl[dot]gov)
Giving users experimental flexibility
The Jupiter Laser Facility has always been a great place to do experiments. It is small enough to get hands-on experience in high-energy-density science and a great place to try new things.
