Laser-driven ion beams from thin-film and foam targets for radiography applications

PetaWatt laser-driven ion beams can be used as probes or converted into secondary species, such as neutrons, for static and dynamics radiography. Experiments at the Omega-EP laser facility are conducted to characterize the laser-driven ion beam using Thomson parabola and PROBIES (PROton Beam Imager and Energy Spectrometer) as primary diagnostics for the beam spectra and spatial source profiles. Prior experiments studied CH foil targets with different thicknesses and tested ion acceleration with/without Compound Parabolic Concentrator (CPC) cone. Recently, CD thin film and foam targets have been used to produce deuteron beams. Preliminary static and dynamic radiography were also conducted using the laser-driven ion beams. We will summarize the different characteristics of the ion beams produced from these targets and the quality of the radiography results and discuss their implications in future experiments for neutron beam generation and multi-probe radiography.