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May, M.

Publications and source records attributed to May, M..

15 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Measurements of K-edge and L-edge extended x-ray absorption fine structure at the national ignition facility (invited)

High-energy-density laser facilities and advances in dynamic compression techniques have expanded access to material states in the Terapascal regime relevant to inertial confinement fusion, planetary science, and geophysics. However, experimentally determining the material temperature in these extreme conditions has remained a difficult challenge. Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS), referring to the modulations in x-ray absorption above an absorption edge from photoelectrons’ interactions with neighboring atoms, has proven to be a versatile and robust technique for probing material temperature and density for mid-to-high Z elements under dynamic compression. The current platform at the National Ignition Facility has developed six configurations for EXAFS measurements between 7 and 18 keV for different absorption edges (Fe K, Co K, Cu K, Ta L3, Pb L3, and Zr K) using a curved-crystal spectrometer and a bright, continuum foil x-ray source. Here, in this work, we describe the platform geometry, x-ray source performance, spectrometer resolution and throughput, design considerations, and data in ambient and dynamic-compression conditions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Expression of Interest: Rare Eta Decays with a TPC for Optical Photons

The REDTOP experiment is primarily intended to look for new violations of basic symmetry principles and conservation laws in particle physics. Our main focus will be on very rare decays of the η meson. From the Standard Model and other theories, such decays can provide distinct insights into the limits of conservation laws and open unique doors to new ones at branching ratio sensitivity levels typically below 10 -9 . Notably, current experimental upper limits for η decays are many orders of magnitude larger. The sensitivity goal of our experiment is expected to be better than 10 -10 for most decay modes, based on an estimated yield of more than 10 12 η mesons per year. Numerous opportunities for new physics Beyond the Standard Model will become available.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Fully kinetic simulations of megajoule-scale dense plasma focus

Dense plasma focus (DPF) Z-pinch devices are sources of copious high energy electrons and ions, x-rays, and neutrons. Megajoule-scale DPFs can generate 10{sup 12} neutrons per pulse in deuterium gas through a combination of thermonuclear and beam-target fusion. However, the details of the neutron production are not fully understood and past optimization efforts of these devices have been largely empirical. Previously, we reported on the first fully kinetic simulations of a kilojoule-scale DPF and demonstrated that both kinetic ions and kinetic electrons are needed to reproduce experimentally observed features, such as charged-particle beam formation and anomalous resistivity. Here, we present the first fully kinetic simulation of a MegaJoule DPF, with predicted ion and neutron spectra, neutron anisotropy, neutron spot size, and time history of neutron production. The total yield predicted by the simulation is in agreement with measured values, validating the kinetic model in a second energy regime.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Radiation transport and energetics of laser-driven half-hohlraums at the National Ignition Facility

Experiments that characterize and develop a high energy-density half-hohlraum platform for use in benchmarking radiation hydrodynamics models have been conducted at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Results from the experiments are used to quantitatively compare with simulations of the radiation transported through an evolving plasma density structure, colloquially known as an N-wave. A half-hohlraum is heated by 80 NIF beams to a temperature of 240 eV. This creates a subsonic diffusive Marshak wave, which propagates into a high atomic number Ta{sub 2}O{sub 5} aerogel. The subsequent radiation transport through the aerogel and through slots cut into the aerogel layer is investigated. We describe a set of experiments that test the hohlraum performance and report on a range of x-ray measurements that absolutely quantify the energetics and radiation partition inside the target.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Bright x-ray sources from laser irradiation of foams with high concentration of Ti

Low-density foams irradiated by a 20 kJ laser at the Omega laser facility (Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Rochester, NY, USA) are shown to convert more than 5% of the laser energy into 4.6 to 6.0 keV x rays. This record efficiency with foam targets is due to novel fabrication techniques based on atomic-layer-deposition of Ti atoms on an aerogel scaffold. A Ti concentration of 33 at. % was obtained in a foam with a total density of 5 mg/cm{sup 3}. The dynamics of the ionization front through these foams were investigated at the 1 kJ laser of the Gekko XII facility (Institute for Laser Engineering, Osaka, Japan). Hydrodynamic simulations can reproduce the average electron temperature but fail to predict accurately the heat front velocity in the foam. This discrepancy is shown to be unrelated to the possible water adsorbed in the foam but could be attributed to effects of the foam micro-structure.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

FY13 LLNL OMEGA Experimental Programs

In FY13, LLNL’s High-Energy-Density Physics (HED) and Indirect Drive Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF-ID) programs conducted several campaigns on the OMEGA laser system and on the EP laser system, as well as campaigns that used the OMEGA and EP beams jointly. Overall LLNL led 290 target shots involving the OMEGA laser system and 158 target shots involving the EP laser system. Approximately 34% of the total number of shots (93 OMEGA shots, 58 EP shots) shots supported the Indirect Drive Inertial Confinement Fusion Campaign (ICF-ID). The remaining 66% (197 OMEGA shots and 100 EP shots) were dedicated to experiments for High-Energy-Density Physics (HED).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

EFFECT OF MEASUREMENT ERRORS ON PREDICTED COSMOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS FROM SHEAR PEAK STATISTICS WITH LARGE SYNOPTIC SURVEY TELESCOPE

We study the effect of galaxy shape measurement errors on predicted cosmological constraints from the statistics of shear peak counts with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). We use the LSST Image Simulator in combination with cosmological N-body simulations to model realistic shear maps for different cosmological models. We include both galaxy shape noise and, for the first time, measurement errors on galaxy shapes. We find that the measurement errors considered have relatively little impact on the constraining power of shear peak counts for LSST.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Backlighter development at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Zinc to Zirconium

A K-shell X-ray emission from laser-irradiated planar Zn, Ge, Br, and Zr foils was measured at the National Ignition Facility for laser irradiances in the range of 0.6–9.5 × 10 15 W/cm 2 . The incident laser power had a pre-pulse to enhance the laser-to-X-ray conversion efficiency (CE) of a 2–5 ns constant-intensity pulse used as the main laser drive. The measured CE into the 8–16 keV energy band ranged from 0.43% to 2%, while the measured CE into the He-like resonance 1s2–1s2p(1P) and intercombination 1s2–1s2p(3P) transitions, as well as from their 1s2(2s,2p)l–1s2p(2s,2p)l satellite transitions for l = 1, 2, 3, corresponding to the Li-, Be-, and B-like resonances, respectively, ranged from 0.3% to 1.5%. Moreover, absolute and relative CE measurements are consistent with X-ray energy scaling of (hν) -3 to (hν) -5 , where hν is the X-ray energy. The temporal evolution of the broadband X-ray power was similar to the main laser drive for ablation plasmas having a critical density surface.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2013

High-Ti-concentration aerogels for bright x-ray sources

Creating intense multi-keV x-ray sources is of great importance for several applications such as radiography of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) plasma experiments and ablation studies. The objective here is to create nanosecond-long sources that are as bright as possible. Laser-heated targets of several types have been studied in the past; they contain mid-Z elements such as Ti, Fe or Ge to produce K-shell x rays with energies of a few keV. For instance, metal foils, pre-exploded foils, metal-doped aerogels, metal oxide nanofibers, and gas-filled targets can achieve from 1 to 10% laser-to-x-ray conversion efficiencies (CE).

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2012

Efficient laser-induced 6-8 keV x-ray production from iron oxide aerogel and foil-lined cavity targets

The performance of new iron-based laser-driven x-ray sources has been tested at the OMEGA laser facility for production of x rays in the 6.5-8.5 keV range. Two types of targets were experimentally investigated: low-density iron oxide aerogels (density 6-16 mg/cm{sup 3}) and stainless steel foil-lined cavity targets (steel thickness 1-5 {mu}m). The targets were irradiated by 40 beams of the OMEGA laser (500 J/beam, 1 ns pulse, wavelength 351 nm). All targets showed good coupling with the laser, with <5% of the incident laser light backscattered by the resulting plasma in all cases (typically <2.5%). The aerogel targets produced T{sub e}=2 to 3 keV, n{sub e}=0.12-0.2 critical density plasmas yielding a 40%-60% laser-to-x-ray total conversion efficiency (CE) (1.2%-3% in the Fe K-shell range). The foil cavity targets produced T{sub e}{approx} 2 keV, n{sub e}{approx} 0.15 critical density plasmas yielding a 60%-75% conversion efficiency (1.6%-2.2% in the Fe K-shell range). Time-resolved images illustrate that the volumetric heating of low-density aerogels allow them to emit a higher K-shell x-ray yield even though they contain fewer Fe atoms. However, their challenging fabrication process leads to a larger shot-to-shot variation than cavity targets.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS2002

Laboratory Studies of the X-ray Emission Produced by the Interaction of Solar Wind Heavy Ions with Comets

The process of X-ray emission following charge exchange between solar wind heavy ions and cometary gases is studied in the laboratory. The emission is recorded with the spare ASTRO-E 6x6 microcalorimeter array. The microcalorimeter affords a resolution of better than 10 eV in the range of X-ray energies of interest arid thus individual emission lines can be resolved. Our present measurements focus on the most abundant K-shell heavy ions found in the solar wind. In particular, we measure the K-shell emission of bare C, N, O, and Ne, and their hydrogenlike counter parts interacting with such gases as CO2, N2, and CH4. Several results are noted that had not been considered in the early cometary X-ray models.

Beiersdorfer, P.↗