Streaked x-ray microscopy of laser-fusion targets

An ultrafast soft x-ray streak camera has been coupled to a Wolter axisymmetric x-ray microscope. This system was used to observe the dynamics of laser fusion targets both in self emission and backlit by laser produced x-ray sources. Spatial resolution was 7 ..mu..m and temporal resolution was 20 ps. Data is presented showing the ablative acceleration of foils to velocities near 10/sup 7/ cm/sec and the collision of an accelerated foil with a second foil, observed using 3 keV streaked x-ray backlighting. Good agreement was found between hydrocode simulations, simple models of the ablative acceleration and the observed velocities of the carbon foils