The MIT HEDP Accelerator Facility for Diagnostic Development for OMEGA, Z, and the NIF

The student-run MIT HEDP Accelerator Facility consists of a 125-keV ion accelerator, DT and DD neutron sources, and two x-ray sources for the development and characterization of diagnostics for OMEGA, Z, and the NIF. The accelerator generates DD and D³He fusion products through the acceleration of D⁺ ions onto a ³He-doped Erbium-Deuteride target, with fusion product rates up to 10⁶ s⁻¹. The DT and DD neutron sources generate up to 6´10⁸ and 10⁷ neutrons/s, respectively. One x-ray generator is a thick-target W source with a peak energy of 225 keV; the other is based on Cu, Mo, or Ti tubes to generate x-rays with a maximum energy of 40 keV. Diagnostics developed and calibrated at this facility include CR-39-based mono-energetic particle radiography, charged-particle spectrometers, neutron detectors, and the particle Time-Of-Flight (pTOF) CVD-diamond-based bang time detector. This poster discusses recent calibration experiments of x-ray filters for use in new temporally and spatially resolving x-ray diagnostics PXTD and XRIS on OMEGA, as well as the development of precision Step-Range-Filter particle spectrometers on the NIF and OMEGA, and analysis techniques for a new Z neutron spectrometer.