A Wolter Imager On The Z Machine To Diagnose Warm X-Ray Sources

A new Wolter x-ray imager has been developed for the Z machine to study the emission of warm (> 15 keV) x-ray sources. A Wolter optic has been adapted from observational astronomy and medical imaging, which uses curved x-ray mirrors to form a 2D image of a source with 5 X 5 X 5 mm(3) field-of-view and measured 60-300-mu m resolution on-axis. The mirrors consist of a multilayer that create a narrow bandpass around the Mo K alpha lines at 17.5 keV. We provide an overview of the instrument design and measured imaging performance. In addition, we present the first data from the instrument of a Mo wire array z-pinch on the Z machine, demonstrating improvements in spatial resolution and a 350-4100X increase in the signal over previous pinhole imaging techniques. Published by AIP Publishing.