PREPARATION OF CU-DOPED GLOW DISCHARGE POLYMER COATINGS FOR ICF APPLICATIONS

OAK-B135 Copper doped polymer shells can provide a very useful diagnostic for fast ignition experiments currently being performed at various laboratories around the world. The low concentration copper dopant acts as an efficient x-ray source providing information on the physics of fast ignition. They have developed copper doped glow discharge (GDP) coatings suitable for such purposes. Copper acetylacetonate (CuAcAC), a solid at room temperature, was used in a heated jacket as the dopant source. They used this technique to fabricate thin ({approx} 5-7 {micro}m) GDP shells doped with {approx} 1 at% copper through the depolymerizable mandrel process for fast ignition experiments. The details of the experimental set up and the range and limitations of the technique are discussed.