Electron Beam and Flash X-Ray Diagnostics

A review of some diagnostic techniques and instrumentation used at Sandia Laboratories for studying intense electron beams and laboratory pulsed x-ray sources is presented. Included are descriptions of current monitors, radiation sensitive polymer films, and calorimeter arrays for beam energy density measurements. Also discussed is the real time-on line digital computer used for calorimetry measurements. A new technique for measuring electron energy as a function of time is presented and representative data from Sandia´s Hermes-II facility are shown. These data are in turn used with a Monte Carlo code to determine the brems-strahlung spectrum, which is compared with a direct photon measurement made with a large Compton spectrometer. Finally, a discussion is given of the use of these data in radiation effects experimentation. The results of combined photon-electron transport calculations are shown which demonstrate the edge and interface effects which are important for thin and inhomogeneous samples.