Experiments and simulations of short-pulse laser-pumped extreme ultraviolet lasers

Recent experimental work on the development of extreme ultraviolet lasers undertaken using as the pumping source the VULCAN laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is compared to detailed simulations. It is shown that short duration (/spl sim/picosecond) pumping can produce X-ray laser pulses of a few picosecond duration and that measurement of the emission from the plasma can give an estimate of the duration of the gain coefficient. The Ehybrid fluid and atomic physics code developed at the University of York is used to simulate X-ray laser gain and plasma emission. Two postprocessors to the Ehybrid code are utilized: 1) to raytrace the X-ray laser beam amplification and refraction and 2) to calculate the radiation emission in the kiloelectronvolt photon energy range. The raytracing and spectral simulations are compared, respectively, to measured X-ray laser output and the output of two diagnostics recording transverse X-ray emission. The pumping laser energy absorbed in the plasma is examined by comparing the simulations to experimental results. It is shown that at high pumping irradiance (>10/sup 15/ Wcm/sup -2/), fast electrons are produced by parametric processes in the preformed long scalelength plasmas. These fast electrons do not pump the population inversion and so pumping efficiency is reduced at high irradiance.     

Effect of the laser focus position on characteristics of X-ray and ion emission from gold plasmas generated by a sub-nanosecond laser

X-ray and ion emission from gold plasma produced by a sub-nanosecond Nd:glass laser has been studies as a function of distance of the target from the best focus position. Thermal ion (kinetic energy <19 keV) signals and soft X-ray flux (photon energy >0.7 keV) measurements decrease as the target is moved closer to the best focus position in spite of an increase in laser intensity. We observe simultaneously a strong correlation between the onset of this drop in the flux of soft X-ray and the growth of harder X-ray (photon energy 3–5 keV), alongside a growth in fast ion (energy >67 keV) numbers. This is indicative of the onset of non-linear processes at the higher irradiances (～10¹⁴ W/cm²) associated with the best focus position. Our results show that when using laser plasmas as X-ray or ion sources, X-ray and ion emission in a desired spectral range can be optimized by adjusting the focusing on the target.     

Double slit interferometry to measure the EUV refractive indices of solids using high harmonics

Accurate values of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) optical properties of materials are required to make EUV optics such as filters and multilayer mirrors. The optical properties of aluminum studied in this report are required, in particular, as aluminum is used as an EUV filter material. The complex refractive index of solid aluminum and the imaginary part of the refractive index of solid iron between 17 eV and 39 eV have been measured using EUV harmonics produced from an 800 nm laser focused to 10(14) Wcm(2) in an argon gas jet impinging on a double slit interferometer.