Long Duration Multi-hohlraum X-ray Sources for Eagle Nebula Laboratory Experiments

A novel foam-filled multi-hohlraum long-duration x-ray source has been demonstrated at the Omega EP laser and used to obtain L-band spectra of photoionized Ti. A larger scale version of the source will be used in the Science on NIF Eagle Nebula experiments studying dynamic evolution of distinctive pillar and cometary structures in star-forming clouds, where the long duration and directionality of photoionizing radiation from nearby stars generates new classes of flows and instabilities. At NIF, a target representing an astrophysical molecular cloud will be placed several mm from an x-ray source lasting 40--100 ns. At EP, three hohlraums were illuminated in sequence with 3.3 kJ pulses lasting 6 ns, or 4.3 kJ pulses lasting 10 ns, generating 18 or 30 ns of x-ray output at 90-100 eV color temperature. Performance of the source was validated using the $\mu$ DMX and VSG spectrometers, ASBO VISAR, and x-ray pinhole imagery. The HYDRA code suggests the EP-scale source can also be shot at NIF with at least 10 kJ per hohlraum. The multi-hohlraum source concept has potential further application to hard x-ray sources, soft x-ray backlighters, and nonlinear ablative hydrodynamics.