Using x-rays to test chemical vapor deposited diamond detectors for areal density measurement at the National Ignition Facility

At the National Ignition Facility (NIF), 192 laser beams will compress a target containing a mixture of deuterium and tritium that will release fusion neutrons, photons, and other radiation. Diagnostics are being designed to measure this emitted radiation to infer crucial parameters of an ignition shot. Chemical vapor deposited (CVD) diamond is one of the ignition diagnostics that will be used as a neutron time-of-flight detector for measuring primary (14.1 MeV) neutron yield, ion temperature, and plasma areal density. This last quantity is the subject of this study and is inferred from the number of downscattered neutrons arriving late in time, divided by the number of primary neutrons. We determine in this study the accuracy with which this detector can measure areal density when the limiting factor is detector and electronics saturation. We used laser-produced x-rays to reproduce NIF signals in terms of charge carrier density, time between pulses, and amplitude contrast and found that the effect of the large pulse on the small pulse is at most 8.4%, which is less than the NIF accuracy requirement of +/-10%.