Publications

Spectral Resolution for Five-Element, Filtered, X-Ray Detector (XRD) Arrays Using the Methods of Backus and Gilbert

Fehl, David L.; Chandler, Gordon A.; Stygar, William A.

The generalized method of Backus and Gilbert (BG) is described and applied to the inverse problem of obtaining spectra from a 5-channel, filtered array of x-ray detectors (XRD's). This diagnostic is routinely fielded on the Z facility at Sandia National Laboratories to study soft x-ray photons ({le}2300 eV), emitted by high density Z-pinch plasmas. The BG method defines spectral resolution limits on the system of response functions that are in good agreement with the unfold method currently in use. The resolution so defined is independent of the source spectrum. For noise-free, simulated data the BG approximating function is also in reasonable agreement with the source spectrum (150 eV black-body) and the unfold. This function may be used as an initial trial function for iterative methods or a regularization model.