Abstract

Recently there has been considerable interest in the interaction of intense, subpicosecond laser pulses with solid target materials. Contrary to longer laser pulses, the hydrodynamic behavior of the plasma and plasma instabilities are of minor importance for subpicosecond laser pulses, and the direct coupling of the intense radiation to the target material can be studied. Soft x-rays emitted from such ultrashort laser-produced plasmas have high energy (~ keV) and subpicosecond time duration.^(1,2) Such x-ray pulses are in high demand for a variety of promising applications, such as timeresolved x-ray spectroscopy, x-ray lithography, and x-ray laser research as well as fundamental ultrashort-laser plasma physics.

© 1992 IQEC