REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS

VOLUME 75, NUMBER 10

OCTOBER 2004

X-ray imaging of an X-pinch plasma with a bubble compound refractive lens

C. K. Garya)
Adelphi Technology, Inc., 981-B Industrial Road, San Carlos, California 94070

S. A. Pikuz, M. D. Mitchell, K. M. Chandler, T. A. Shelkovenko, and D. A. Hammera)

Laboratory of Plasma Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853

Yu. I. Dudchik
Institute of Applied Physics Problems, Kurchatova 7, Minsk 220064, Belarus

(Presented on 21 April 2004; published 12 October 2004) We present diagnostic images taken of an X-pinch plasma x-ray source driven by the XP pulser 100 ns, 500 kA at Cornell University using an x-ray bubble compound refractive lens. The lens consists of a 200 m inside diameter glass capillary that contains about 100 biconcave microlenses formed by a string of bubbles in epoxy. A precise system for lens alignment with of 35 arcmin accuracy is described. X-ray images of four-wire X pinches were obtained with a spatial resolution of approximately 2 m. 2004 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.1789252]

I. INTRODUCTION

Compound refractive lenses14 (CRLs) can be a valuable tool for imaging of x-ray sources, providing submicron resolution images over elds of view of several millimeters. However, their application for high temperature plasma diagnostics is practically unknown. The rst attempt to image the X-pinch hot spot plasma5 using an x-ray bubble CRL (BCRL) was reported in our previous article.6 These experiments used a short, 8 mm, BCRL and demagnied the image of the source onto the detector, easing alignment at the expense of resolution. The current measurements use a 30 mm long BCRL with magnication, requiring greater care in alignment while providing better resolution.
II. LENS PARAMETERS

absorbed by e2 relative to x rays traveling on the optical axis.1 From absorption measurements through the 28 m thick walls between bubbles, the linear attenuation length was calculated to be 0.587 mm1. Thus, the e2 absorption length is 3.4 mm and habs = 35+ 28 m = 63 m for a single biconcave lens. For a spherical lens, the absorption aperture radius is given by Dabs = 2 R2 R habs h 2
2

A BCRL is formed from gas bubbles within a capillary lled with epoxy, as shown in Fig. 1. The lens manufacturing process is detailed elsewhere.6,7 Since matter has an index of refraction of less than 1 for x rays, the concave lens shapes provided by the epoxy serve to focus radiation. The lens used for these experiments was provided by Adelphi Technology, Inc., and consisted of 98 microlenses (bubble walls) in a capillary of 200 m diameter. The nominal focal length f is 13.5 cm and measured transmission along the lens axis is 20% at 7 keV. Similar BCRLs with signicantly reduced absorption can now been produced but were not available at the time of the experiments described in this article. The useful aperture of the lens is limited by absorption. Since the individual lenses of the BCRL each increase in thickness away from the axis, eventually off axis radiation will be strongly absorbed and no longer contribute to the image. This effective aperture is referred to as the absorption aperture, and is taken as the diameter at which the x rays are
a)

which for the given values of R = 100 m, h = 28 m, and habs = 63 m, yields Dabs = 112 m. The eld of view of the lens is determined by the angular distribution of rays, that can pass through the narrow tunnel formed by the BCRL, given by = 2Dabs / l, where l is the length of the BCRL. The projection of onto the source plane gives the eld of view [see Fig. 1(b)] = 2Dabsa . l 2

For the 98 element bubble lens, l = 3 cm, yielding = 7.5 mrad. Taking into account refraction in the lens increases the acceptance angle slightly. For high magnications, which are desirable, a f, giving a eld of view at the source of = 1 mm, which is certainly sufcient for X-pinch plasma imaging.
III. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

Electronic mail: cgary@adelphitech.com, dah5@cornell.edu

The BRCL was positioned so that the X-pinch source was in its object plane and the x-ray lm in the image plane as shown in Fig. 2(b); that is a1 + b1 = f 1. The image of the source on the lm is magnied by b / a = 7.25 times. The BCRL lens was placed inside a sheath made of a glass tube with inner diameter matched to the outer diameter of the lens capillary and of slightly smaller length so that the BCRL could be slid in and out of this sheath [see Fig. 2(a)].
3950 2004 American Institute of Physics

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Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 75, No. 10, October 2004

Plasma diagnostics

3951

FIG. 1. (a) Schematic diagram of a bubble lens; (b) the eld of view of a bubble lens is determined by its aperture Dabs, length l, and distance the source a; (c) spectral transmission through the bubble lens, Cu and Al foils, and lm; and (d) approximate spectral efciency of front and back lms for 800 eV Plankian radiation.

The sheath was mounted in a brass holder and xed by adhesive lead tape. The brass holder was mounted in a small rotation stage within the vacuum chamber of the X-pinch pulser [Figs. 2(b)2(d)]. The lens entrance aperture was protected from X-pinch debris by a 15 m Al foil. The lm detector consisted of a sandwich of two Kodak Biomax 60 90 mm lms. The lms were protected from visible light by a 10 m Cu lter. This lter was the primary factor limiting the spectrum of the radiation reaching the lm. Copper was chosen because it has low absorption (in its K window) in the desired wavelength range. Figure 1(c) shows the transmission through the lens and the Al protector, Cu lter, and front lm. From this the spectral band illuminating the front and back lms can be determined. We used absorption parameters for DEF lm since

none were available for the Biomax lm. The spectrum of radiation that forms the image on the lm is also inuenced by the lms spectral sensitivity and the spectral distribution of source radiation. Previous experiments have shown that the hot spot radiates photons with a Plankian spectrum with a temperature of 700 1300 eV, depending on experimental conditions. For most experiments, the temperature was between 800 and 1000 eV. The spectral efciency for imaging 800 eV Plankian radiation on the front and back lm is presented in Fig. 1(d), again using the sensitivity of DEF lm. As can be seen, radiation in 6 9 keV spectral band could be efciently and selectively imaged.
IV. LENS ALIGNMENT

The relatively small spatial 1 mm and angular 7.4 mrad eld of view require careful alignment of the lens. To achieve this alignment, we used a laser. We illuminated the X-pinch crossing point where the hot plasma is developed during the shot with a sharply focused ( 20 m diameter) laser beam, as shown in Fig. 3(a). Since the laser

FIG. 2. (a) Schematic diagram of BCRL mounted in its sheath (glass tube); (b) schematic diagram of the optical system for imaging the X-pinch source; (c) photograph of the mounted BCRL; and (d) detail of BCRL as mounted in the glass sheath.

FIG. 3. (a) Position of the laser focus spot relative to the X-pinch; (b) alignment conguration; (c) alignment conguration showing the lm position.

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3952

Rev. Sci. Instrum., Vol. 75, No. 10, October 2004

Gary et al.

FIG. 5. (a) A pinhole image (0.15 mm aperture, E 9 keV) of a four wire 4 20 m NiCr X-pinch, (b) the BCRL image, (c) enlargements of the hot spot images, and (d) horizontal and vertical line scans of the upper hot spot image.

FIG. 4. (a) BCRL image of a four wire 4 17 m tungsten X-pinch; (b), (c) enlargements of front and back lm images of the focal spot; (d) further enlargement of focal spot; and (e) horizontal and vertical line scans of the peak.

spot is smaller than the wire diameter, the laser light was completely blocked if the beam struck the center of the X. Therefore, the laser was focused to a point displaced from the crossing point on small distance 50 m along the X-pinch axis. Laser light was allowed to reach the glass sheath, with no capillary, and an interference pattern of this light after it has reected from the inner walls of the glass tube can be observed on a screen placed at twice the image distance from the lens. The interference pattern was extremely sensitive to the angular position of the sheath, and the accuracy of alignment relative to the laser focus position proved to be better than 0.5 mrad. After aligning the sheath, the BCRL was placed inside the sheath and covered by an Al foil protector on the side facing the X pinch.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Figures 4(b) and 4(c) show enlargements of the central portion of the image for both the front and back lms. As can be seen, the structure of the spot is similar on both lms. The optical density of the bright spot was close to the upper limit of the Minolta (Dimage Scan Multi Pro) lm scanner used (more than 3.5) indicating that the lm was overexposed, which could cause an overestimate of the spot size. Figure 4(e) gives vertical and horizontal line scans through the intensity peak shown in Fig. 4(d). The full width half maximum of the image is about 6 m in both directions. An image of a NiCr X pinch with a more complicated structure recorded using the BCRL is shown in Fig. 5. In this shot two well separated hot spots (also visible in the pinhole image) were produced by the X pinch. A very ne structure of each hot spot is clearly seen in the image. The radiation intensity from the NiCr X pinch was not so high as from the W X pinch, and the image was not overexposed. Spatial resolution in this case (about 2 m) was limited by scanner parameters.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Four wire tungsten 4 17 m and NiCr 4 20 m X pinches were imaged with the BCRL. Slit step wedge (SSW) camera8 and pinhole images of the W X pinch were recorded, and an optical density prole of the image recorded in the same spectral band as the RCBL was shown to have high spectral efciency. Figure 4 shows the BCRL image of the W X-pinch source. The image consists of a bright central spot surrounded by a diffuse, approximately concentric ring. The ring most likely results from hard X-pinch radiation 20 keV that passes through the glass walls of the lens capillary and glass sheath. The brass holder effectively serves as a large diameter pinhole for the high energy radiation, and it should generally be possible to calculate its spatial distribution by applying the penumbra technique.

This research was supported in part by DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-98ER54496 and by Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, Contract No. AO258.
1

A. Snigirev, V. Kohn, I. Snigireva, and B. Lengeler, Nature (London) 384, 49 (1996). 2 Y. Kohmura, M. Awaji, Y. Suzuki, T. Ishikawa, Y. I. Dudchik, N. N. Kolchevsky, and F. F. Komarov, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 70, 416l (1999). 3 C. G. Schroer et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 1485 (2003). 4 M. A. Piestrup, H. R. Beguiristain, C. K. Gary, J. T. Cremer, R. H. Pantell, and R. Tatchyn, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B 173, 170 (2001). 5 T. A. Shelkovenko, D. B. Sinars, S. A. Pikuz, and D. A. Hammer, Phys. Plasmas 8, 1305 (2001). 6 S. A. Pikuz et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 2247 (2003). 7 Yu. I. Dudchik and N. N. Kolchevsky, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A 421, 361 (1999). 8 T. A. Shelkovenko, S. A. Pikuz, V. M. Romanova, G. V. Ivanenkov, B. M. Song, K. M. Chandler, M. D. Mitchell, and D. A. Hammer, Proc. SPIE 5196, 36 (2003).

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