A scheme for a resonantly pumped, laboratory x-ray laser has been developed and the results from preliminary investigations are presented. The scheme uses a gas-jet target, developed by G. H. Dahlbacka of Plasma Research Corp., as the lasing medium. The resonant pump for the scheme comes from a solid target which can be heated to the appropriate temperature by the remaining laser light after it heats the gas medium. The particular scheme that will be presented uses a Be IV 2μ-* is transition to pump a principal quantum number 2 -*4 excitation in Ne VII, with the objective of creating a population inversion between the Ne VII 4 and 3 levels. Time-integrated x-ray emission spectra from the Ne plasma, Ne spectra with and without pumping by radiation from the Be plasma, and calculations which predict the effects of the pump upon the target plasma, and which are compared with the experimental results, are described.

Date Published: 4 February 1988
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 0831, X-Rays from Laser Plasmas, (4 February 1988); doi: 10.1117/12.965045

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 0831:
X-Rays from Laser Plasmas
Martin C. Richardson, Editor(s)