Discharge pumped table-top soft x-ray laser

Journal Article · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Bulletin of the American Physical Society

OSTI ID:394177

Rocca, J J ^[1]

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1. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)

Since the first demonstration of soft x-ray lasing in plasmas generated by large laser facilities nearly ten years ago, the development of more compact and efficient ultrashort wavelength laser sources that could have widespread use in applications has attracted considerable attention. It has been early recognized in the development of x-ray lasers, that direct discharge excitation could result in a significant increased laser efficiency, increased simplicity and reduced size and cost. However, despite considerable efforts the problem of demonstrating large amplification at wavelengths below 100nm using discharge pumping proved difficult and remained unresolved. This talk will discuss the recent first demonstration of large soft x-ray amplification in a discharge created plasma. The authors have utilized a fast capillary discharge to create plasma columns with length-to-diameter ratios approaching 1000:1 that have the necessary conditions for soft x-ray amplification by collisional excitation. An amplification of exp(14) was measured in the J=O line of Ne-like Argon at 46.9nm. Results of the study of the Ne-like Argon amplifier and future prospects will be discussed.

• OSTI ID: 394177
• Report Number(s): CONF-9605105--
• Journal Information: Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Physical Society Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 41; ISSN BAPSA6; ISSN 0003-0503
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
ELECTRICAL PUMPING
SOFT X RADIATION
X-RAY LASERS