Effects of unresolved satellite lines on lasing of extreme ultraviolet light with nitrogen plasma in a recombining phase

Abstract

Satellite lines with a high-lying spectator electron give unresolved spectral feature with respect to a parent resonance line. In our previous study [T. Ozawa et al., Phys. Plasmas 19, 063302 (2012)], population inversion between 3l and 2l of hydrogenlike nitrogen in a recombining phase was quantitatively estimated and the dielectronic-capture ladderlike processes, which implicitly include such doubly excited states as nln′l′ (n=2−4,n′≫n), were found to be indispensable in the estimation of a gain. In this study, the population densities of the doubly excited states are explicitly calculated by a time-dependent collisional-radiative model with desired plasma conditions for the lasing of nitrogen Balmer-α, which is a parent resonance line of unresolved satellite lines 3ln′l′→2ln′l′. The stimulated emission of the unresolved satellite lines caused by Balmer-α is found to reduce the population inversion between 3l and 2l, leading to essential saturation of the amplification of Balmer-α laser light.