Vol. 30, Issue 1, pp. 93-102 (2000)

Abstract

Preliminary experimental investigations on soft X-ray lasers based on optical field ionization of gases with an ultrashort-pulse terawatt laser system are presented. Both recombination and collisional soft X-ray laser schemes have been studied. An elongated gas puff target formed by pulsed injection of a small amount of gas from a high-pressure electromagnetic valve through a nozzle in a form of a slit was used to create an X-ray laser active medium. The target was irradiated with laser pulses from a 20-fs, 50-mJ Ti:sapphire (Ti:S) laser system. Soft X-ray spectra from nitrogen, oxygen, and xenon targets are presented and discussed.