In this paper we present the results of the first experiments on x-ray laser using a laser- irradiated gas puff target. The gas puff targets were created by pulsed injection of gas from a high-pressure valve through a nozzle into a vacuum. An x-ray laser active medium in a form of an elongated plasma column was produced by the perpendicular irradiation of the gas puff target in a form of a long sheet of gas, created using the nozzle having a linear exit aperture, with the laser beam focused to a line. The x-ray laser experiments were carried out at Garching using the ASTERIX IV high-power iodine laser. Up to 3-cm-long hot and dense plasma columns were produced. Lasing in neon-like argon at 46.9 nm and in nickel-like xenon at 10.0 nm was demonstrated for the first time.

Date Published: 25 September 1995
PDF: 14 pages
Proc. SPIE 2520, Soft X-Ray Lasers and Applications, (25 September 1995); doi: 10.1117/12.221659

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2520:
Soft X-Ray Lasers and Applications
Jorge J. G. Rocca; Peter L. Hagelstein, Editor(s)