"Portable" Soft X-Ray Laser
Abstract
A very useful compact soft X-ray laser (SXL) can be constructed based on the achievements of two laboratories: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). In the PPPL experiment, gain at a wavelength of 18.2 nm was demonstrated in a recombining carbon plasma pumped transversely by a Nd/YLF laser of relatively low energy and without the use of an external magnetic field. However, the effective lasing length was probably limited by refraction effects in the plasma or its nonuniformity, or both. In the RAL experiment for collisionally excited germanium soft X-ray laser, two adjacent lasing media, pumped from opposite directions, provided compensation for the refraction. The PXL Team proposed to adopt RAL's concept to the recombination SXL in order to build a compact, table-top-18.2 nm laser with output pulse energy around 20 uJ. It will be about two orders of magnitude more intense than a laser-produced plasma, with the radiation concentrated in a 10 mradian cone. The beam divergence will decrease another three orders of magnitude with development of a cavity.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 22, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA251833
Entities
People
- Leonid Polonski