Abstract

Short-pulse high-intensity laser–plasma interactions are investigated experimentally with temporally and spectrally resolved soft-x-ray diagnostics. We demonstrate that, by adjustment of the incident laser flux, the pulse width of the laser-produced x rays emitted from solid targets may be varied to as short as the picosecond time scale. Bright, picosecond, broadband emission characteristic of a short-scale-length high-density plasma is produced only when a high laser contrast (10¹⁰) is used. The results are found to be in qualitative agreement with both the predictions of a simple model of radiation from a collisionally dominated atomic system and the results obtained from a numerical simulation.

© 1996 Optical Society of America

Soft-x-ray spectroscopy of subpicosecond laser-produced plasmas

K. M. Krushelnick, W. Tighe, and S. Suckewer
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 13(2) 395-401 (1996)

Numerical simulation of subpicosecond laser plasma x-ray emission

A. A. Andreev and I. V. Kurnin
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 13(2) 402-405 (1996)

Soft-x-ray imaging from an ultrashort-pulse laser-produced plasma using a multilayer coated optic

J. R. Norby and L. D. Van Woerkom
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 13(2) 454-458 (1996)

Photoionization lasers pumped by broadband soft-x-ray flux from laser-produced plasmas

W. T. Silfvast and O. R. Wood
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 4(4) 609-618 (1987)

Gigawatt x-ray source from laser–plasma interaction with a 50-TW, subpicosecond laser

G. Malka, N. Blanchot, D. Desenne, M. Louis-Jacquet, A. Mens, J. L. Miquel, and O. Peyrusse
J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 14(8) 2091-2094 (1997)