Flash Proton Radiography

Abstract

Protons were first investigated as radiographic probes as high energy proton accelerators became accessible to the scientific community in the 1960s. Like the initial use of X-rays in the 1800s, protons were shown to be a useful tool for studying the contents of opaque materials, but the electromagnetic charge of the protons opened up a new set of interaction processes which complicated their use. These complications in combination with the high expense of generating protons with energies high enough to penetrate typical objects resulted in proton radiography becoming a novelty, demonstrated at accelerator facilities, but not utilized to their full potential until the 1990s at Los Alamos. During this time Los Alamos National Laboratory was investigating a wide range of options, including X-rays and neutrons, as the next generation of probes to be used for thick object flash radiography. During this process it was realized that the charge nature of the protons, which was the source of the initial difficulty with this idea, could be used to recover this technique. By introducing a magnetic imaging lens downstream of the object to be radiographed, the blur resulting from scattering within the object could be focused out of the measurements, dramatically improving the resolution of proton radiography of thick systems. Imaging systems were quickly developed and combined with the temporal structure of a proton beam generated by a linear accelerator, providing a unique flash radiography capability for measurements at Los Alamos National Laboratory. This technique has now been employed at LANSCE for two decades and has been adopted around the world as the premier flash radiography technique for the study of dynamic material properties.