TWO WORLD-CLASS LASERS COMBINE TO POWER APPLICATIONS.

The world's most energetic short-pulse laser, the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) laser enables researchers to examine high-energy-density (HED) plasmas and the extreme conditions during implosion leading up to fusion at times later than ever before. Used for diagnostic purposes in conjunction with the National Ignition Facility (NIF) main laser beams, ARC fires up to four high-intensity beamlets at a metal target to produce high-energy, high-flux x rays. When used as a high-energy backlighter, or target illuminator, these x rays have more penetrating ability than current backlighters using x rays from several diverted NIF main laser beams. Therefore, radiographic images from ARC-generated x rays show more detail and can reveal the compression of a target at much higher densities. A second backlighter application, Compton radiography backlighting, relies on x rays generated by ARC and Compton scattering to image low-atomic-number materials, such as hydrogen and its isotopes, inside a target capsule. Besides generation of x rays for backlighting, ARC can be used for a wide range of other applications. Recent Discovery Science Program experiments have produced streams of protons and a possible method for creating beams of neutrons, deuterons, or other particles. Additional experiments have generated matter-antimatter plasma pairs of electrons and positrons, an exotic condition of matter associated with black holes. This work has also led to breakthroughs in target platforms that could be helpful in other TIED and inertial confinement fusion experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]