Plasmas produced by capillary discharges have recently received great attention. This could be due to the possible application (soft x-ray laser microscopy and lithography), as well as to the interest in studying the physical phenomena (fusion research, intense sources of continuum and line emission). The soft x-ray lasing has been realized in a gas filled table-top system, utilizing a capillary discharge to excite 46.9 nm transition of Ne-like argon. To obtain lasing at wavelengths below 46 nm in the Ne-like isoelectronic sequence, excitation of higher Z-ions should be used. Highly uniform, high-density metal and dielectric vapor plasmas can be used for the Z-scaling of the Ar IX laser. The technique of the production of ablative plasmas with high-voltage μs discharges utilizing experimental set-up with open-geometry capillaries is discussed. Applications of the developed metal-vapor generator for the Z-scaling of the Ne-like soft x-ray laser, recently realized by our group, is considered.

Date Published: 9 April 2003
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 5131, Third GR-I International Conference on New Laser Technologies and Applications, (9 April 2003); doi: 10.1117/12.513495

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5131:
Third GR-I International Conference on New Laser Technologies and Applications
Alexis Carabelas; Giuseppe Baldacchini; Paolo Di Lazzaro; Dimitrios Zevgolis, Editor(s)