Abstract

Laser pulses with energies of as much as 1 mJ were generated at a wavelength of 46.9 nm by single-pass amplification in a 34.5 cm-long Ne-like Ar capillary discharge plasma. The large gain–length product of this plasma column allows for soft-x-ray amplification in a highly saturated regime, resulting in efficient energy extraction. Average laser output pulse energy of 0.88 mJ and peak power of 0.6 MW were obtained at a repetition rate of 4 Hz. With an estimated peak spectral brightness of $\approx 1\times {10}^{23} \mathrm{photons}/({\mathrm{s mm}}^2 {\mathrm{mrad}}^2 0.01\%$ bandwidth) this tabletop laser is one of the brightest soft-x-ray sources to date.

© 1999 Optical Society of America

Operation and output pulse characteristics of an extremely compact capillary-discharge tabletop soft-x-ray laser

B. R. Benware, C. H. Moreno, D. J. Burd, and J. J. Rocca
Opt. Lett. 22(11) 796-798 (1997)

Demonstration of a 10-µJ tabletop laser at 52.9 nm in neonlike chlorine

M. Frati, M. Seminario, and J. J. Rocca
Opt. Lett. 25(14) 1022-1024 (2000)

Soft-x-ray laser interferometry of a plasma with a tabletop laser and a Lloyd's mirror

J. J. Rocca, C. H. Moreno, M. C. Marconi, and K. Kanizay
Opt. Lett. 24(6) 420-422 (1999)

Focusing of a tabletop soft-x-ray laser beam and laser ablation

B. R. Benware, A. Ozols, J. J. Rocca, I. A. Artioukov, V. V. Kondratenko, and A. V. Vinogradov
Opt. Lett. 24(23) 1714-1716 (1999)

Impact of discharge currents on the intensity of 46.9 nm capillary discharge soft X-ray laser

Muhammad Usman Khan, Yongpeng Zhao, Tong Hui, Muhammad Khuram Shahzad, Huaiyu Cui, and Dongdi Zhao
Opt. Express 27(12) 16738-16750 (2019)