We report clear evidence of the existence of multiply ionized plasmas with index of refraction greater than one at soft x-ray wavelengths. Moreover, it is shown to be a general phenomenon affecting broad spectral regions in numerous highly ionized plasmas. The experimental evidence consists of the observation of anomalous fringe shifts in soft x-ray laser interferograms of laser-created Al plasmas probed at 14.7 nm and of Ag and Sn laser-created plasmas probed at 46.9 nm. The comparison of measured and simulated interferograms shows that these anomalous fringe shifts result from the dominant contribution of low charge ions to the index of refraction. This usually neglected bound electron contribution can affect the propagation of soft x-ray radiation in plasmas and the interferometric diagnostics of plasmas for many elements and at different wavelengths.
Over the last decade, most laser-driven collisional excitation x-ray lasers have relied on the absorption of the pump energy incident at normal incidence to a pre-formed plasma. The main advantage is that the inversion can be created at various plasma regions in space and time where the amplification and ray propagation processes are best served. The main disadvantage is that different plasma regions regardless of the contribution to the inversion have to be pumped simultaneously in order to make the laser work. This leads to a loss of efficiency. The new scheme of grazing incidence pumping (GRIP) addresses this issue. In essence, a chosen electron density region of a pre-formed plasma column, produced by a longer pulse at normal incidence onto a slab target, is selectively pumped by focusing a short pulse of 100 fs-10 ps duration laser at a determined grazing incidence angle to the target surface. The exact angle is dependent on the pump wavelength and relates to refraction of the drive beam in the plasma. The controlled use of refraction of the pumping laser in the plasma results in several benefits: The pump laser path length is longer and there is an increase in the laser absorption in the gain region for creating a collisional Ni-like ion x-ray laser. There is also an inherent traveling wave, close to c, that increases the overall pumping efficiency. This can lead to a 3-30 times reduction in the pump energy for mid-Z, sub-20 nm lasers. We report several examples of this new x-ray laser on two different laser systems. The first demonstrates a 10 Hz x-ray laser operating at 18.9 nm pumped with a total of 150 mJ of 800 nm wavelength from a Ti:Sapphire laser. The second case is shown where the COMET laser is used both at 527 nm and 1054 nm wavelength to pump higher Z materials with the goal of extending the wavelength regime of tabletop x-ray lasers below 10 nm.
During recent months we have continued investigations of many different aspects of x-ray lasers to characterize and improve the source and applications. This work has included temporal characterization of existing laser-heated x-ray lasers under a wide range of pumping conditions. We have also looked into more details at different applications of x-ray lasers among which was the interferometry of laser-produced and capillary discharge plasmas in several irradiation conditions for different target Z materials. The reduction of pump energy remains the most important for the generation of new compact x-ray lasers. Numerical studies show that there are some ways to improve several of the key parameters of x-ray lasers specifically repetition rates and efficiency.
We summarize results of several successful dense plasma diagnostics experiments realized combining two different kinds of table-top soft x-ray lasers with an amplitude division interferometer based on diffraction grating beam splitters. In the first set of experiments this robust high throughput diffraction grating interferometer (DGI) was used with a 46.9 nm portable capillary discharge laser to study the dynamics of line focus and point focus laser-created plasmas. The measured electron density profiles, which differ significantly from those expected from a classical expansion, unveil important twodimensional effects of the dynamics of these plasmas. A second DGI customized to operate in combination with a 14.7 nm Ni-like Pd transient gain laser was used to perform interferometry of line focus laser-created plasmas with picosecond time resolution. These measurements provide valuable new benchmarks for complex hydrodynamic codes and help bring new understanding of the dynamics of dense plasmas. The instrumentation and methodology we describe is scalable to significantly shorter wavelengths, and constitutes a promising scheme for extending interferometry to the study of very dense
plasmas such as those investigated for inertial confinment fusion.
Advances in transient collisional x-ray lasers have been demonstrated over the last 5 years as a technique for achieving tabletop soft x-ray lasers using 2 - 10 J of laser pump energy. The high peak brightness of these sources operating in the high output saturation regime, in the range of 1024 - 1025 ph. mm-2 mrad-2 s-1 (0.1% BW) -1, is ideal for many applications requiring high photon fluence in a single short burst. However, the pump energy required for these x-ray lasers is still relatively high and limits the x-ray laser repetition rate to 1 shot every few minutes. Higher repetition rate collisional schemes have been reported and show some promise for high output in the future. We report a novel technique for enhancing the coupling efficiency of the laser pump into the gain medium that could lead to enhanced x-ray inversion with a factor of ten reduction in the drive energy. This has been applied to the collisional excitation scheme for Ni-like Mo at 18.9 nm and x-ray laser output has been demonstrated. Prelimanry results show lasing on a single shot of the optical laser operating at 10 Hz and with 70 mJ in the short pulse. Such a proposed source would have higher average brightness, ~1014 ph. mm-2 mrad-2 s-1 (0.1% BW) -1, than present bending magnet 3rd generation synchrotron sources operating at the same spectral range.
We present within this paper a series of experiments, which yield new observations to further our understanding of the transient collisional x-ray laser medium. We use the recently developed technique of picosecond x-ray laser interferometry to probe the plasma conditions in which the x-ray laser is generated and propagates. This yields two dimensional electron density maps of the plasma taken at different times relative to the peak of the 600ps plasma-forming beam. In another experimental campaign, the output of the x-ray laser plasma column is imaged with a spherical multilayer mirror onto a CCD camera to give a two-dimensional intensity map of the x-ray laser output. Near-field imaging gives insights into refraction, output intensity and spatial mode structure. Combining these images with the density maps gives an indication of the electron density at which the x-ray laser is being emitted at (yielding insights into the effect of density gradients on beam propagation). Experimental observations coupled with simulations predict that most effective coupling of laser pump energy occurs when the duration of the main heating pulse is comparable to the gain lifetime (~10ps for Ni-like schemes). This can increase the output intensity by more than an order of magnitude relative to the case were the same pumping energy is delivered within a shorter heating pulse duration (< 3ps). We have also conducted an experiment in which the output of the x-ray laser was imaged onto the entrance slit of a high temporal resolution streak camera. This effectively takes a one-dimensional slice of the x-ray laser spatial profile and sweeps it in time. Under some conditions we observe rapid movement of the x-ray laser (~ 3um/ps) towards the target surface.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.