Abstract
High Z exploding foil targets are used in many soft x-ray laser schemes. The foils are typically irradiated with a long ('1 ns) optical laser pulse that burns through the foil to produce a large hot plasma with long density scale lengths suitable as an amplifier. While it is expanding, and before the plasma conditions are suitable for stimulated emission, a large fraction of the heating laser energy is lost through radiation and conduction. We report the results of experiments attempting to increase the efficiency of exploding foil amplifiers through the following procedure. A laser beam ('1 2 W/cm2) is used to heat the foil sufficiently to expand it to approximately 200 pm. A high intensity (''1 5 W/cm2) short pulse (1 0 ps) laser beam is then used to raise the plasma to the desired temperature and ion state. Temporally resolved x-ray spectra from Yb foils are presented.
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