An overview of the X-ray Laser project at Princeton University will be given. Emphasis will be on improvements being made to the small scale soft x-ray laser (SXL). New target designs to enhance cooling and others to reduce losses due to beam refraction have been introduced though results are stilt preliminary. Proof of principle experiments for the application of the SXL to both transmission and reflection microscopy have been performed. To generate shorter wavelength x-ray lasers on a reasonable scale-size, a high power, 300 fsec pulse duration, ultraviolet KrF laser system (the PSP-laser) has been developed. Of the several theoretical schemes which exist, the two-laser approach and a newly proposed recombination approach will be described. The new approach proposes to scale the existing 18.2 nm recombination x-ray laser to shorter wavelength (<4 nm) by making use of the short-pulse pump laser and rapid cooling associated with the adiabatic expansion of µsphere targets.

Date Published: 1 June 1992
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 1627, Solid State Lasers III, (1 June 1992); doi: 10.1117/12.60178

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1627:
Solid State Lasers III
Gregory J. Quarles, Editor(s)