Determination of the imploded mass in laser-imploded shell targets

Abstract
A new method of experimental measurement of the imploded mass of laser-imploded shell targets is proposed. This method is based on simultaneous measurements of the velocity spectrum of the neutral atom flux emitted from the imploded part of the target, and the total energy carried by them. A semiconductor diode with a shallowly located pn junction was used as the low energy neutral particle detector. By means of the time of flight method neutral atom fluxes with velocities υ ∼ (0·6 − 1·8) × 107cm/s were registered in experiments carried out on the 6-beam laser system “Delfin”.