The emulsions are strips of photographic film. The emulsion is about 20 times thicker than what is found on film you use in your camera. Petawatt laser fusion project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. We make it by pouring the liquid gel on the plastic substrate ourselves. It's a simple mechanical process, and we pour it by hand.
Experienced people are just as important as the facility.
W alter Fountain and Mark Christl of NASA and Joy Johnson of the Universities Space Research Association make the emulsions by hand. The 1x12-cm size for the petawatt laser facility is not the largest they can make. They have also produced large trays for placement under metal sheets that intercept cosmic rays and turn them into showers of secondary particles. For the petawatt laser tests, the film strips are not just hung inside the chamber where the laser target sits, but placed inside three special electron spectrometers. These spectrometers let scientists measure the relative population of the two particles.