Preparation of Deuterated Polymer Targets for the OMEGA Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer*

Uniform deuterated polymer films on tantalum substrates are used as targets for the new Magnetic Recoil Spectrometer (MRS) at the OMEGA laser system at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics. The MRS is designed to measure the neutron energy spectrum produced in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments by detection of deuterons elastically scattered from the polymer target. The goal of our project is to produce circular films with areas ranging from 2 to 15 cm$^{2}$ and thicknesses ranging from 40 to 300 microns. Design parameters stipulate that the polymer thicknesses must be characterized to within 5{\%} with less than 5{\%} variation throughout the sample. Methods for preparing and characterizing these films will be discussed.