Development of a Time Resolved Faraday Rotation Diagnostic for HEDP Applications

High Energy Density Physics Experiments such as wire array and Z pinches, Dense Plasma Focus and Gas Puff experiments are typically carried out with fast rise time high current pulsed power drivers. The inherent jitter in the pulsed power energy delivered to the load as well as the nonlinearities occurring in these experiments make it difficult to carry out repeatable measurements on subsequent experimental shots. This work then focuses on the development of fully time resolved diagnostic within one shot/experiment to measure the resultant compressive magnetic fields as well as the currents in the pinch region. This faraday rotation diagnostic is part of a comprehensive suite of plasma and radiation diagnostics being fielded on the LOBO Linear Transformer Driver (LTD) at the University of New Mexico on pinched wire array experiments. Different from other approaches that utilize a nanosecond pulsed ND-YAG laser at 1064 or 532nm then coupled to optical delay lines and multiple sets of CCD cameras our fully time resolved faraday rotation instrument is based on the use of a Single Longitudinal Mode (SLM) CW laser down converted via a periodically poled MgO doped Lithium Niobate second harmonic generator to 775 nm and the use of 3 large format CCD cameras. These scientific grade CD cameras are individually triggered and gated to capture data during a specific time slot within a shot. The large sensor size allows for the imaging of the density measurement from a Mach Zehnder interferometer as well as the Left and Right polarized components of the diagnostic, all within one frame. This poster will present the development of this diagnostic as well as initial results of experiments on the LOBO LTD on HEDP pinched wire experiments.