〈ρR〉 measurements in laser-produced implosions using elastically scattered ions

The measurement of the number of elastically scattered deuterium and tritium ions is shown experimentally to be an effective means of determining the 〈ρR〉 of the fuel in a laser fusion implosion. A method is described for clearly separating the unwanted proton background signal from the desired d and t knockon signals. The details of the analysis are presented for an experiment resulting in a measured 〈ρR〉 of 1.2×10−3 g/cm2.