laser-driven shock waves | Ricerc@Sapienza

X-ray absorption radiography for high pressure shock wave studies

The study of laser compressed matter, both warm dense matter (WDM) and hot dense matter
(HDM), is relevant to several research areas, including materials science, astrophysics, inertial
confinement fusion. X-ray absorption radiography is a unique tool to diagnose compressed WDM
and HDM. The application of radiography to shock-wave studies is presented and discussed. In
addition to the standard Abel inversion to recover a density map from a transmission map, a
procedure has been developed to generate synthetic radiographs using density maps produced by

Quantitative phase contrast imaging of a shock-wave with a laser-plasma based X-ray source

X-ray phase contrast imaging (XPCI) is more sensitive to density variations than X-ray absorption radiography, which is a crucial advantage when imaging weakly-absorbing, low-Z materials, or steep density gradients in matter under extreme conditions. Here, we describe the application of a polychromatic X-ray laser-plasma source (duration ~0.5 ps, photon energy >1 keV) to the study of a laser-driven shock travelling in plastic material. The XPCI technique allows for a clear identification of the shock front as well as of small-scale features present during the interaction.