Simulation study of enhancing laser-driven multi-keV line-radiation through application of external magnetic fields
ORAL
Abstract
Laser-driven, spectrally tailored, high-flux x-ray sources have been developed over the past decade for testing the radiation hardness of materials used in various civilian, space and military applications. The optimal electron temperatures for these x-ray sources occur around twice the desired photon energy. At the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser, the available energy can produce plasmas with $\sim10\,keV$ electron temperatures which result in highly-efficient $\sim5\,keV$ radiation but less than optimal emission from the $>10\,keV$ sources. In this work, we present a possible venue for enhancing multi-$keV$ x-ray emission on existing laser platforms through the application of an external magnetic field. Preliminary radiation-hydrodynamics calculations with \textsc{Hydra} suggest as much as $2-14\times$ increases in laser-to-x-ray conversion efficiency for $22-68\,keV$ K-shell sources are possible on the NIF laser -- without any changes in laser-drive conditions -- through the application of an external axial $50\,T$ field.
*This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344.
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