Reconstruction and analysis of knock-on deuteron images of direct-drive ICF implosions at OMEGA

Knock-on deuteron imaging is a new diagnostic technique that images the source distribution of deuterons that are elastically scattered by primary neutrons generated in a D-T gas-filled ICF implosion. By energy-resolving these deuteron images, obtained in three near-orthogonal directions, information about the morphology of the hot spot and high-density D-T fuel can be obtained. Experimental demonstrations of the concept were successfully conducted at the OMEGA laser facility. In these experiments, several absolutely co-aligned penumbral knock-on deuteron images, with different energy bands, were obtained in the three different directions, from which the hot spot and surrounding high-density shell could be reconstructed. Reconstruction techniques have been developed that will be presented here, along with examples of resulting images. These results demonstrate that this technique works well.

This work was supported in part by the U.S. DOE, the MIT/NNSA CoE, and LLE.