A new compact, high sensitivity neutron imaging system.

We have developed a new small neutron imaging system (SNIS) diagnostic for the OMEGA laser facility. The SNIS uses a penumbral coded aperture and has been designed to record images from low yield (10(9)-10(10) neutrons) implosions such as those using deuterium as the fuel. This camera was tested at OMEGA in 2009 on a rugby hohlraum energetics experiment where it recorded an image at a yield of 1.4 × 10(10). The resolution of this image was 54 μm and the camera was located only 4 meters from target chamber centre. We recently improved the instrument by adding a cooled CCD camera. The sensitivity of the new camera has been fully characterized using a linear accelerator and a (60)Co γ-ray source. The calibration showed that the signal-to-noise ratio could be improved by using raw binning detection.