Talbot and Talbot-Lau interferometry for Laser-Plasma applications

In recent years, the interest for studying dense plasmas has increased significantly, owing to their interest in fields such as inertial confinement fusion, material science, and laboratory astrophysics. Because of their high densities, traditional optical methods cannot be used to diagnose the internal structure and evolution of these systems, and X-rays must be used in turn. It is in this context that X-ray imaging methods that exploit the real part of the refractive index become highly important. In particular, Talbot interferometry constitutes a powerful tool, owing to the amount of information it can provide in a single shot, its robustness to noise, and the ability to “customize” the spatial resolution of the diagnostics. In this talk, we will present an overview of the Talbot and Talbot-Lau effects and discuss applications of Talbot interferometry to diagnose dense plasmas, as well as how analysis methods work. Finally, we will present current advances, and the biggest challenges affecting this diagnostic.