Commissioning the new pulse dilation Gas Cherenkov Detector at the National Ignition Facility

The new Pulse Dilation – Photomultiplier Tube fielded on the Gas Cherenkov Detector GCD-3 at the National Ignition Facility allows for high band width DT gamma reaction history measurements. Crucial for successful data collection is precise timing of the dilation window. Using both a short pulse laser and test measurements on high yield ice layered DT shots the timing was set well within a 1-ns dilation window. This allowed for successful data collection on high yield shots for Carbon and Hohlraum/TMP (n,n’) gamma measurements and for DT fusion reaction rate measurements. The burn width measurements of GCD agree with burn width measurements of the sister instrument Gamma Reaction History.