Abstract

Enhancement of soft x-ray emission by applying an ultrashort prepulse before main pulse irradiation is very attractive for various applications. The effects of prepulse have been studied mainly in spectroscopic method.^1-4 In this paper, we clarify the temporal behavior of soft x-ray pulses emitted from Al plasma produced by a pair of femtosecond laser pulses at 800 nm for the first time. The soft x-ray yield was largely enhanced about 100 times though its pulse duration was less than 100 ps.

© 1996 Optical Society of America