Abstract

During the last few years X-rays generated from ultra-short laser-produced plasmas have obtained an increasing interest. Medical applications have been shown to be possible [1]. The temporal duration of X-ray emission produced by femtosecond laser pulses is known to be of the order of picoseconds at low photon energies (< 10 keV). A similar duration is expected at higher photon energies, but little experimental data is available so far. Ultra-short X-ray pulses offer possibilities for temporal rejection of scattered radiation in radiological imaging [2], in analogy to optical time-gated imaging [3]. This might lead to a reduction of patient dose without change in image quality.

© 1996 IEEE