Abstract

High intensity, sub-picosecond laser pulses can be used to heat electrons to very high energies in and near solid surfaces. These electrons can cause the emission of short duration x-ray pulses through inelastic collisional processes in the solid and through recombination of highly ionized plasma formed at the surface of the solid. These processes can be enhanced by structuring the surface and by nonlinear processes at high laser intensity. New technology is required, including both lasers (with energy on order of one Joule and duration on order of 100 femtoseconds) and x-ray detectors (with subpicosecond resolution). Applications for short pulse x-rays include time resolved x-ray scattering and pumping x-ray lasers.

© 1990 Optical Society of America