Heterodyne Interferometer for Triggering Gas-Puff PRSs
Abstract
Consistent timing between the injection of gas in plasma radiation sources (PRSs) and the generator current pulse is crucial to producing high-yield x-ray pulses. This Phase 1 SBIR effort has shown that triggering modes currently used in DTRA's x-ray simulator program (high voltage trigger pin; command fire mode) introduce an effective variation in initial load mass of +/-11%, and this may be as high as +/-20%. This variation is so large that it can completely mask any PRS improvement attempted in the x-ray simulator R&D program, and result in approx. 20% variation in x-ray yield. This effort demonstrated the utility of a compact, heterodyne interferometer trigger system to reduce effective variation in load mass, where variations as low as +/-1.5% may be possible. The interferometer system can monitor the gas puff time history, with resulting data used to improve the density profile of each simulator shot. It will also help to quantify the amount of pre-ionization and early electron density buildup for the plasma radiation sources.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 25, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA435380
Entities
People
- Robert C. Hazelton