Abstract

Tremendous progress has been made in the last two years in x-ray lasing with significant output using elongated laboratory plasmas. The 1000-Å barrier has been broken and the 100-Å barrier is currently being challenged. Much current interest is in Δn = 0 3s−3p transitions in closed shell neonlike ions such as Se and Y in laser-vaporized thin films¹; and lasing at wavelengths as short as 133 Å (Mo) has been reported. There remains much physics to be understood concerning the pumping of particular levels, radiative transport, reproducibility, as well as scaling of output power, wavelength, and pumping efficiency. Initial results² from an experiment with neonlike Cu XX, designed to address such crucial issues using the NRL Pharos III laser, are described. Of particular interest is a relatively simple split foil target design³ which promises improved plasma conditions for gain and collimation.

© 1986 Optical Society of America