Sub-nanosecond time-resolved radiation measurement using x-ray focusing crystal spectrometers

A T Elshafiey; N G Chalmers; S A Pikuz; T A Shelkovenko; D A Hammer

doi:10.1063/5.0150183

Sub-nanosecond time-resolved radiation measurement using x-ray focusing crystal spectrometers

Rev Sci Instrum. 2023 Aug 1;94(8):083508. doi: 10.1063/5.0150183.

Authors

A T Elshafiey^{1

2}, N G Chalmers¹, S A Pikuz³, T A Shelkovenko³, D A Hammer¹

Affiliations

¹ Cornell University, 441 Rhodes Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA.
² Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
³ P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, 53 Leninskiy Pr, 141700 Moscow, Russia.

PMID: 38065178
DOI: 10.1063/5.0150183

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a technique using a crystal spectrometer, a silicon-diode detector, and a filtered photoconductive detector to monitor photon energies in the L-shell (0.9-1 keV) and K-shell regimes for nickel and copper hybrid X-pinch x-ray sources. The detectors, system cabling, and an 8 GHz digital oscilloscope in combination enable time resolution better than 200 ps for photoconductive detectors and 700 ps for silicon-diode detectors of the K- and L-shell radiation signals, respectively. We substantially improve the relative timing of signals obtained using the oscilloscope by using an x-ray streak camera with a crystal spectrometer to monitor the L-shell line spectra and, separately, the K-shell line spectra relative to the continuum burst to better than 17 ps time resolution. This combination of instruments enabled and validated a new method by which plasma conditions in nickel and copper X-pinches can be assessed immediately before and after the ∼30 ps continuum x-ray burst produced by 370 kA hybrid X-pinches. In general, the method described here can be applied to observe otherwise highly filter-absorbed radiation in the presence of a broad spectrum of higher energy radiation by combining x-ray crystals and detectors.