Laser Integration Line target diagnostics first results (invited)

The Laser Integration Line (LIL) is part of the Laser Megajoule (LMJ) project. The LMJ installation, which is of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) class, will deliver 1.8MJ at 0.35μm wavelength on target with 60 quadruplets of elementary beams. The energy on target of LIL is 30kJ corresponding to one quadruplet, it is housed in a separate building and has its own experimental setup. Target diagnostics have been progressively installed in the LIL target area. Energy and imaging diagnostics as well as the broadband and high resolution spectrometers have been fabricated in the frame of a unique industrial contract. Optical pointers are used to align the diagnostics to the target. The supervisory system controlling the diagnostics configuration and data acquisition is now able to manage cooperative and Commissariat à l' Energie Atomique (CEA) shots. The calibration data base is accessible from the processing network and will very soon include the characterization of all the streaked, gated, and charge coupled device cameras. Only the Raman-Brillouin backscatter spectrometer still requires some final work and operating tests. The first diagnostics results have been obtained at the end of 2004. A gated soft x-ray imager, the Diagnostic de Mesure X (DMX) broadband spectrometer and a pinhole static imager were used in demonstration experiments. The purpose of the first experiment was to observe the closing of a slit etched in a tantalum oxide foam when irradiated by x-rays. The next diagnostics to be activated were the high resolution spectrometers, the gated x-ray imager, the two mirror x-ray imagers, and the scattered energy diagnostic. This was done during the preparation phase of a campaign realized in collaboration with the French Lasers and Plasmas Institute at the end of 2005 in order to study heat conduction in inertial confinement fusion plasmas. The next diagnostic which is now in preparation is a velocity interferometer system for any reflector. This diagnostic is in its fabrication phase and will be operational for diamond equation of state experiments.