Protons accelerated by a picosecond laser pulse have been used to radiograph a $500\mu \mathrm{m}$ diameter capsule, imploded with 300 J of laser light in 6 symmetrically incident beams of wavelength $1.054\mu \mathrm{m}$ and pulse length 1 ns. Point projection proton backlighting was used to characterize the density gradients at discrete times through the implosion. Asymmetries were diagnosed both during the early and stagnation stages of the implosion. Comparison with analytic scattering theory and simple Monte Carlo simulations were consistent with a $3\pm 1\mathrm{g}/{\mathrm{cm}}^3$ core with diameter $85\pm 10\mu \mathrm{m}$. Scaling simulations show that protons $>50\mathrm{MeV}$ are required to diagnose asymmetry in ignition scale conditions.

• Received 25 March 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.045001