Patent Number: 
Section: description

While this invention is described in some detail herein, with specific reference to illustrated embodiments, it is to be understood that there is no intent to be limited to these embodiments. On the contrary, the aim is to cover all modifications, alternatives and equivalents falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims. A radiographic laser 30 of the first preferred embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2-5. In FIG. 2, a high power laser pulse generator 32 generates a high-energy ultra-short pulse 40. The conduit 34 directs the pulse 40, which can travel a long distance without attenuation, toward the target 36. In the first preferred embodiment, the laser pulse has an energy level of 1021 W/cm2. As shown in FIG. 5, the target 36 uses a material 22 (approximately 1 mm thick) with high electrical conductivity such as gold or copper. It is preferable to have target density of at least 5 g/cm3. As an example, the remaining layers could be: beryllium 24 (4.4 mm thick), copper 26 (0.7 mm thick), aluminum 28 (3 mm thick), aluminum oxide 30 (1 mm thick) and polyester 32 (3.7 mm thick). However, the one layer of gold without the filler layers would be adequate. The high conductivity in the material is necessary to provide a sufficient return current in the target in order to neutralize the strong space-charge potential created by the rapid depletion of electrons from the target region. Referring to FIG. 3, the high power laser pulse (HPLP) generator 32 will be described in detail. A short-pulse oscillator 50 generates an initial short pulse 90 as shown in FIG. 4A. For example, the initial short pulse 90 is 0.1 psec long with a power that is only a few milliwatts. If this short pulse 90 were simply amplified, the power amplifiers 70 would be destroyed. Therefore, using a grating system 54 spreads the short pulse 90 out. In this configuration, the beam splitter 52 directs the pulse 92 to mirrors 56, 58, which direct the short pulse 90 to diffraction grating 60 that separates the different wavelengths. In this lo figure, only three colors (red, green, blue as noted by R, G, B respectively) are shown. However, the full spectrum would actually be spread out and directed through lenses 62, 64 to the second diffraction grating 66 and the mirror 68. As the wavelengths are reflected back through the grating system 54, the light that travels the shortest distance, for example B, would pass through beam splitter 52 first. As shown in FIG. 4B, the pulse 92 is a long low-power pulse with the blue light traveling as the front of the wave. In this example, the pulse would now be 2000 psec long still at the low power of several milliwatts. The pulse 94 is now amplified by passing through power amplifiers 70. The resulting high-energy pulse 94 is shown in FIG. 4C. It still has the same color spectrum, but now at the much higher power level of several gigawatts. The high-energy pulse is passed through a reverse grating system 76 by being reflected by mirror 74 toward gratings 78, 80 and concave mirror 82. The resulting high-energy, ultra-short pulse 40 is directed toward the target by a mirror 96. FIG. 4D shows the high-energy ultra-short pulse is now 0.3 psec, but with a petawatt (1021 W/cm2) power level. Referring to FIG. 2, the high-energy ultra-short laser pulse 40 is directed toward the target 36, via the conduit 34. The advantage of this system is that the source of the pulse can be at any distance from the target 36. Therefore, the bulky laser pulse generator can be far away from the object to be imaged. As the laser pulse 40 penetrates the target 36, hard x-rays 44 are produced as Bremsstrahlung radiation from the interaction of electrons with the nuclei of the dense target (Au) atoms. The smaller the area of the target that the laser pulse 40 hits, the more focused the x-ray beam 44 will be when exiting the target 36. The conventional electron beam sources focus the electron beam to an area about 2 millimeters in diameter. In contrast, the laser pulse can be focused to an area of only 50 microns in diameter. Therefore, the smaller diameter x-ray spot produced by the laser improves imaging resolution. Referring to FIG. 7, the graph shows an initial electron spectrum from FXR (curve 126) and petawatt pulse lasers (curve 128) interacting with a target of high conductivity. The petawatt electron spectrum is estimated by the following equation: N(E)dE=C(Exc2xd/ less than Ee greater than {fraction (3/2)})Exp[xe2x88x92E/ less than Ee greater than ]dExe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1) where C is the normalization constant. The distribution shows that a petawatt pulse laser as the source can produce hard x-rays in the 1-10 MeV range. In contrast, the FXR source produces a well-defined set of electrons around 16 MeV range. The electrons are the source for x-ray production via subsequent bremsstrahlung. Although the electron distributions are different, the x-ray distributions are similar as shown in FIG. 8. Referring to FIG. 7, the similarities between using an FXR source and a petawatt laser source for hard x-ray production are evident. The distribution of x-rays when calculated from distribution curve 122 for a computer model FXR source. The distribution curve 120 is for the experimental results using an FXR source and distribution curve 124 is for the calculated results using the petawatt laser source. It is clear that use of the petawatt class lasers of the present invention can produce hard x-rays with a spectral distribution similar to that achievable with high-currout induction accelerators despite the very different electron distributions. The present invention can be focused on an extremely small source size such that more sophisticated bremsstrahlung target designs and higher spatial resolution can be performed. Referring to FIG. 8, a multi-axis configuration of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention 130 is shown. Although this shows only two dimensions, it is clear that this can be expanded to a three-dimensional configuration. Pulse lasers 132, 134, 136 generate laser pulses down conduits 138, 144, 146 respectively. Conduit 144 is a straight tube that allows the laser pulse to strike the target 142. However, the conduit 138 has a mirror 140 to reflect the laser pulse to target 142. The conduit 146 has both a mirror 140 to direct the laser pulse down conduit 152 and a beam splitter 148 to direct part of the laser pulse down conduit 150. On the opposite side of object 156 are detection plates 154. The distance that the laser pulse travels determines when the x-rays will penetrate the object 156. Therefore, either the lasers could be fired at different times in order to have all of the x-rays penetrate the object at the same time. However, the laser pulses could be timed such that x-rays pass through the object 156 at different time intervals. Since the laser pulse is extremely short and the production of x-rays is concentrated at the time the pulse hits the target and dissipate quickly, x-rays produced by one pulse would not interfere with the x-rays from the next pulse. This can be accomplished by using time-gated detection of the detection plates 154. As an alternative, one laser can be set up with a multi-pulse format. Instead of a beam splitter 148, a moveable mirror could be used to direct the different pulses down different conduits, the object can be radiographed at several angles and the detection plates would only detect the x-rays for a specific timed pulse. Either of these methods is extremely useful if the object is going through a destructive test and one wants to observe different phases of the objects movement. It is clear that any application requiring time resolved or high image contrast ballistic x-ray radiography is enabled by the present invention. For example, medical x-rays applications can be improved by the use of ballistic imaging enabled by the picosecond duration of the laser source. As another example, time resolved x-ray images of dynamic events such as ordnance interactions or blade failure in a gas turbine engine will be greatly enhanced. Although the foregoing invention has been described in some detail by way of illustration for purposes of clarity of understanding, it will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in light of the teachings of this invention that certain changes and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit or scope of the appended claims.