Debris mitigation in pinhole-apertured point-projection backlit imaging

Pinhole-apertured point-projection x-ray radiography is an important diagnostic technique for obtaining high resolution, high contrast, and large field-of-view images used to diagnose the hydrodynamic evolution of high energy density experiments. In this technique, a pinhole aperture is placed between a laser irradiated foil (x-ray source) and an imaging detector. In the present geometry, the x rays that are not transmitted through the pinhole aperture, ablate the pinhole substrate’s surface, and turn it into a flyer plate. The pinhole substrate then breaks apart into shrapnel, and that shrapnel can damage diagnostics inside the target chamber. In this letter, we present a technique on mitigating the debris by using a tilted pinhole.