UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO PROJECT TITLE: DEVELOPMENT OF TALBOT-LAU PHASE-CONTRAST X-RAY DIAGNOSTICS FOR HIGH ENERGY DENSITY LABORATORY PLASMAS ADVANCED REFRACTION-BASED X-RAY IMAGING DIAGNOSTICS FOR HIGH ENERGY DENSITY LABORATORY PLASMAS (HEDLP) HAVE BEEN DEVELOPED BY THE PI UNDER NNSA SPONSORSHIP WITHIN THE JOHNS HOPKINS PLASMA SPECTROSCOPY AND X-RAY IMAGING GROUP. TALBOT-LAU X-RAY (TLX) INTERFEROMETRY USES X-RAY BACKLIGHTING TO MEASURE THE X-RAY REFRACTION PRODUCED BY CHANGES IN DENSITY AS THE BEAM PASSES THROUGH A TARGET PLASMA. IN THE DEFLECTOMETRY MODE, FOURIER ANALYSIS DELIVERS PHASE-CONTRAST, ATTENUATION, AND SMALL-ANGLE SCATTER IMAGES OF THE PLASMA FROM A SINGLE MOIRÉ IMAGE. THE IMAGES ARE POST-PROCESSED TO OBTAIN ELECTRON DENSITY (NE) AND ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION WHILE DETECTING THE PRESENCE OF MICRO-STRUCTURES. THE TECHNIQUE HAS BEEN VALIDATED ON THE MTW, ECLIPSE, LULI, AND OMEGA EP LASER FACILITIES. THE RESEARCH IN ADVANCED HEDLP X-RAY DIAGNOSTICS HAS DELIVERED IMPORTANT RESULTS AND REVEALED KEY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES THAT WILL BENEFIT THE COMMUNITY. DIAGNOSTIC ADVANCES AND APPLICATIONS TO HEDLP EXPERIMENTS ARE PROPOSED WITHIN A 3-YEAR GRANT RENEWAL TO BE CARRIED OUT BY THE PI, NOW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO, HER TEAM AT THE NEW INSTITUTION, AND THE CO-INVESTIGATOR AT THE COLLABORATING INSTITUTION (JHU). THE MAIN PROPOSED ACTIVITIES FOCUS ON FURTHER ENHANCING REFRACTION-BASED X-RAY DIAGNOSTICS BY ADVANCING MONOCHROMATIC TALBOT-LAU X-RAY INTERFEROMETRY AND ESTABLISHING TALBOT-LAU X-RAY INTERFEROMETRY IN THE PULSED-POWER ENVIRONMENT TO BROADEN ITS IMPACT IN ALL AREAS OF HEDLP RESEARCH. INTERFEROMETER CONTRAST IS LIMITED BY THE HARD SPECTRUM OF HIGH-INTENSITY LASER DRIVEN PS-DURATION KA BACKLIGHTERS. A STRONG BACKGROUND DECREASES CONTRAST AND HAMPERS THE ACCURACY AND SENSITIVITY OF PHASE-RETRIEVAL FROM MOIRÉ IMAGES. MONOCHROMATIC TLX IMAGING WILL IMPROVE CONTRAST AND SPATIAL RESOLUTION IN AN OMEGA EP EXPERIMENT. X- RAY SOURCES WILL BE STUDIED ON MTW BY OPTIMIZING X-RAY BACKLIGHTER TARGETS AND DETECTORS FOR MONOCHROMATIC TLX IMAGING.