D-3He Protons as a Diagnostic for Target ρR

LLE Review, Volume 73 15 Areal density (ρR) is an important parameter for measuring compression in ICF experiments. Several diagnostics employing nuclear particles have been considered to deduce this quantity in implosions. One diagnostic is the knock-on deuterons,1 i.e., deuterons produced by the elastic scattering of fuel deuterons and primary neutrons from the DT reaction. The number of knock-ons contained in the high-energy peak (typically 16% of the total produced) of the emergent spectrum is proportional to the fuel areal density [(ρR)f] and the position of the peak provides a measure of the plastic areal density [(ρR)CH]. This diagnostic, however, is limited to (ρR)CH ~ 100 mg/cm2 as higher compressions can considerably distort the emergent spectra, preventing a reliable interpretation of the signal.