NIF neutron diagnostic concept based on n-p scattering from a thin CH/sub 2/ converter foil

Summary form only given. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a 1.8 MJ glass laser which will initially be used to demonstrate ignition and gain in an inertially confined plasma. The present NIF target design is predicted to have a thermonuclear output of up to 10 MJ for 1.8 MJ of 0.35 /spl mu/m laser energy incident in a hohlraum with a peak radiation drive temperature of 300 eV. These levels of thermonuclear output open up the possibility of several new classes of neutron diagnostics. One such class of instruments is based on the measurement of proton recoils from the interaction of 2.45 MeV and 14.1 MeV neutrons in thin CH/sub 2/ foils (of order 10 mg/cm/sup 2/ thick). The diagnostic would operate by detecting the proton recoils at near forward angles in either time-integrated detectors or time-resolved current mode detectors. The paper discusses several possible diagnostic configurations based on this concept and presents calculations of the sensitivity of the technique.