Direct areal density measurement by activation technique for plastic hollow shell implosion experiments

The fuel areal density ρR measurement of imploded plastic hollow shell targets by use of a neutron activation technique is reported. Silicon was doped as an activatable tracer into a hollow shell of tritium-contained deuterated polymer(CDTSi). This target was imploded by 0.53 μm Nd:glass laser light and the induced radioactivity of 28 Al was measured with a β-γ coincidence counting system. The collection efficiency was calibrated by the use of radioactive tracer 24 Na and was verified by comparing the estimated ρR with that simultaneously measured by a knock-on method.