Calibration of X-ray Imaging Devices for Accurate Intensity Measurement

Historically, X-ray imaging has been used to determine geometric and qualitative intensity information, such as tooth damage or star luminosity. For many endeavors, including astronomy, non-destructive testing, medicine, and plasma physics, the ability to measure accurately the X-ray intensity in a specific energy interval has become more important. But the metrology for these measurements, namely the traceability to an internationally accepted standard, is not well developed. Over the past five years, National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec) has built up several laboratories and developed X-ray sources to cover measurements in the energy range from 50 eV to 115 keV. These sources are primarily devoted to calibrating diagnostics and their components that are used for various plasma studies, mainly for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and particularly the National Ignition Facility (NIF).