Abstract

Many optical characteristics of high peak power laser radiation correspond to the x-ray source characteristics of a laser produced plasma. As a result the spatial, temporal, and spectral characteristics of the radiation are quite different from those of other pulsed x-ray sources such as e-beams, exploding wires, or vacuum sparks. These differences create entirely new application areas for laser-plasma x-ray sources while leading to improved performance in certain conventional pulsed x-ray source applications.

© 1982 Optical Society of America