SUBOPTICAL X-RAY-IMAGING USING THE VULCAN X-RAY LASER

An imaging microscope, comprising a Schwarzchild condenser and a zone-plate optical arrangement, has been established on the Vulcan Nd:glass laser system at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Magnified images of simple test structures have been taken in x-ray transmission in a single subnanosecond laser shot by using doublet x-ray laser radiation at 23.2 and 23.6 nm from collisionally pumped Ne-like germanium. Image resolutions of approximately 0.15 mum have been measured. The results are a proof of principle and demonstrate that images of potentially suboptical resolution and of specimen regions that are destroyed on passage of the x-ray beam can be taken successfully using the Vulcan x-ray laser.

AN INJECTOR AMPLIFIER DOUBLE TARGET CONFIGURATION FOR THE NE-LIKE GE X-RAY LASER SCHEME

The XUV lasing output from one germanium slab target has been efficiently coupled into, and further amplified in, a second plasma produced by irradiation of a similar target from the opposite direction. The operation of such a double target was shown to be strongly dependent on the distance by which the two target surfaces were displaced. The line brightness peaked for a surface displacement of approximately 200-mu-m and it was observed that the pointing direction of one output beam could be controlled by the surface separation in an asymmetric geometry. Gain length products of approximately 16 with estimated output powers close to the megawatt level were achieved on both the 23.2 and 23.6 nm J=2-1 transitions for an optimised target configuration. Maximum effective coupling efficiencies of the individual outputs from double targets, comprising 2.2 and 1.4 cm length components, approached 100% for beams propagating from the shorter to the longer target.

COLLISIONALLY EXCITED X-RAY LASER SCHEMES - PROGRESS AT RUTHERFORD APPLETON LABORATORY

Characteristics of the 3p-3s amplified spontaneous emission from Ne-like Ge plasma columns, generated by ablation from massive targets, have been studied in detail. In particular, the gain coefficients of the J = 2-1 lines at 23.2 and 23.6 nm have been measured as a function of incident intensity for a 1.05-mu-m wavelength pump laser beam. For 100-mu-m wide stripe targets and a fixed energy pump laser the maximum gain length product is achieved at an irradiance of

THE EXPANSION HISTORY OF ALUMINUM TARGETS RELEVANT TO X-RAY LASER SCHEMES

For the first time, the technique of point projection absorption spectroscopy - which uses an intense, point source of X-rays to project and spectrally disperse an image of a plasma onto a detector- has been shown to be applicable to the study of expanding aluminium plasmas generated by approximately 80ps (2-omega) laser pulses. Massive, stripe targets of approximately 125-mu-m width and wire targets of 25-mu-m diameter have been studied. Using a PET Bragg crystal as the dispersive element, a resolving power of approximately 3500 was achieved with spatial resolution at the 5-mu-m level in frame times of the order of 80ps. Reduction of the data for times up to 150ps after the peak of the incident laser pulse produced estimates of the temperature and densities present, as a function of space and time.