DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES OF AN MCP BASED PINHOLE CAMERA FOR LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS

An X-ray pinhole camera system has been developed and tested to obtain spatially resolved time-integrated X-ray images of laser-produced pla smas (Nd:YAG laser of 75mJ energy in 35 picoseconds) using a single st age micro channel plate (MCP) detector coupled to a CCD camera-frame g rabber system instead of X-ray film. Thick slab targets of aluminium, copper and gold were used to produce plasmas with different X-ray yiel ds at laser intensities ranging from 8 x 10(11) to 8 x 10(12) W/cm(2). MCP gain was increased with the help of biasing voltages to record lo w intensity X-ray images, which have been analysed using an image proc essing software ''PROMISE'' developed in-house. The experimental resul ts are presented.