Publications Details

Measurements of Z Electrode Temperatures Using Absolutely Calibrated Streaked Visible Spectroscopy Systems and Avalanche Photodiodes

Patel, Sonal P.; Johnston, Mark D.; Bliss, David E.; Laity, George R.; Gomez, Matthew R.; Falcon, Ross E.; Scoglietti, Daniel S.; Macrunnels, K.A.; Savage, Mark E.; Cuneo, M.E.

Absolute calibration of streaked visible spectroscopy systems has been performed at Z-machine at Sandia National Labs in order to determine temperatures of electrode surfaces during the current pulse. The ability to calibrate the full system, including all fiber optic runs and probes is crucial to understanding errors in the calibration process. The calibration procedure involves imaging a blackbody light source, with a known spectral radiance which is coupled to an integrating sphere. This source is streaked slowly over a few ns using Sydor streak cameras. The slow sweep is converted to a 100-500ns sweep by imaging a bright light source on both sweep rates, and obtaining wavelength and time dependent correction curves. Any broadband light source or several laser lines of differing wavelengths can be used for this correction. This technique has yielded temperature estimates of several eV in the Z convolute.