X-ray laser experiments using laser-irradiated gas puff targets at the ASTERIX IV facility

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of the first experiments on x-ray laser using a laser- irradiated gas puff target. The gas puff targets were created by pulsed injection of gas from a high-pressure valve through a nozzle into a vacuum. An x-ray laser active medium in a form of an elongated plasma column was produced by the perpendicular irradiation of the gas puff target in a form of a long sheet of gas, created using the nozzle having a linear exit aperture, with the laser beam focused to a line. The x-ray laser experiments were carried out at Garching using the ASTERIX IV high-power iodine laser. Up to 3-cm-long hot and dense plasma columns were produced. Lasing in neon-like argon at 46.9 nm and in nickel-like xenon at 10.0 nm was demonstrated for the first time.