Hard x-rays as a diagnostic tool for warm dense matter*

Laser driven sources producing short bursts of energetic x-rays (10-100 keV) are an important tool to investigate warm dense matter. Radiography, x-ray scattering and x-ray diffraction are the principal tools to measure ionic density, plasma parameters and crystal structure. We studied short-pulse laser-generated hard x-ray (18-60 keV) sources, suitable for radiographs of large samples of dense matter. The spatial and dynamic resolution for different target types and laser parameters have been investigated. A high quality radiographs with good spatial resolution in two dimensions was demonstrated by irradiating free standing thin W wires. We investigated also the influence of the geometry for the quality of the radiograph, which is crucial for the design of experiments probing laser-compressed matter. Finally, we present the application of the x-ray source for the density measurement of shocked iron.