K. A. Janulewicz

Transient pumping of a Ni-like Ag x-ray laser with a subpicosecond pump pulse in a traveling-wave irradiation geometry

We report what is to our knowledge the first demonstration of a transient x-ray laser pumped by a 350-fs pulse in a traveling-wave irradiation geometry. For a 500-fs pump pulse the traveling-wave irradiation was found to have a strong effect on enhancing the Ni-like silver 4d–4p lasing emission at 13.9 nm. The signal enhancement was significantly less when the pulse duration was lengthened to 1.7 ps. The experimental observations are well reproduced by a simple model when the duration of gain is taken of the order of 15–20 ps. For the 500-fs pulse a gain coefficient of 14.5 cm-1 was measured for plasma lengths up to 7 mm. Refraction of the amplified photons is believed to be the main cause of the limitation of the effective amplification length.

Development of foam-based layered targets for laser-driven ion beam production

We report on the development of foam-based double-layer targets (DLTs) for laser-driven ion acceleration. Foam layers with a density of a few mg cm−3 and controlled thickness in the 8–36 μm range were grown on μm-thick Al foils by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The DLTs were experimentally investigated by varying the pulse intensity, laser polarisation and target properties. Comparing DLTs with simple Al foils, we observed a systematic enhancement of the maximum and average energies and number of accelerated ions. Maximum energies up to 30 MeV for protons and 130 MeV for C6+ ions were detected. Dedicated three-dimensional particle-in-cell (3D-PIC) simulations were performed considering both uniform and cluster-assembled foams to interpret the effect of the foam nanostructure on the acceleration process.

Single-pulse coherent diffraction imaging using soft x-ray laser.

We report a coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) using a single 8 ps soft x-ray laser pulse at a wavelength of 13.9 nm. The soft x-ray pulse was generated by a laboratory-scale intense pumping laser providing coherent x-ray pulses up to the level of 10(11) photons/pulse. A spatial resolution below 194 nm was achieved with a single pulse, and it was shown that a resolution below 55 nm is feasible with improved detector capability. The single-pulse CDI might provide a way to investigate dynamics of nanoscale molecules or particles.

Characteristics of a Ni-like silver x-ray laser pumped by a single profiled laser pulse

We characterized a Ni-like silver soft x-ray laser realized as, what we believe is, a new variant of the grazing incidence pumping (GRIP) scheme. The x-ray laser was pumped by a single profiled laser pulse from a 10 Hz Ti:sapphire laser system. The Ni-like Ag x-ray laser was saturated with a gain coefficient of 76 cm−1 and an effective gain-length product of 28.2. The spatial characteristics of the new version of GRIP x-ray laser are presented including the far- and near-field beam profiles. Computational modeling of the lasing conditions was used to provide some qualitative explanations of the physical processes occurring in the x-ray laser. Additionally, we obtained some preliminary results on the injection seeding technique applied to the Ni-like Ag active medium using the 59th harmonic of the Ti:sapphire laser pulse as the seed. The single-pulse variant of the pumping scheme proved to be a stable and simple configuration of the table-top x-ray lasers also suitable for the injector-amplifier arrangement.

Transverse spatial coherence of a transient nickellike silver soft-x-ray laser pumped by a single picosecond laser pulse

The degree of spatial coherence in the direction perpendicular to the target surface is reported for a transient nickellike silver x-ray laser at 13.9 nm. An x-ray laser plasma column was produced by irradiating a slab silver target with a single shaped picosecond laser pulse with energy less than 3 J. Youngs double-slit method was applied to measure the fringe visibility as a function of the slit separation for different target lengths. The diameter of the equivalent incoherent source and the coherence radius of the output radiation were determined as well.

X-ray laser spectroscopy on lithium-like ions

The Gesellschaft fuer Schwerionenforschung (GSI, Society for Heavy Ion Research) is currently the leading facility in the production of radioactive isotopes. Nuclear properties like charge radii, spin, and magnetic moments of exotic nuclei provide important data for testing of nuclear models. These properties are usually accessed by laser spectroscopy, which requires photon energies of around 100 eV in the case of lithium-like ions. We propose to use a transient gain X-ray laser (XRL) at the experimental storage ring (ESR) to perform this kind of spectroscopy. In this article we describe the planned experiments and give an overview of the current construction at GSI.

Enhancement of a 24.77-nm line emitted by the plasma of a boron nitride capillary discharge irradiated by a high-intensity ultrashort laser pulse

Investigations of plasma produced by a boron nitride capillary discharge irradiated with a guided 20-TW Ti: sapphire laser pulse at a peak intensity of 4 x 10(18) W/cm2 are presented. The guided laser radiation in the plasma channel generated He-like ions that, subject to suitable plasma temperature, recombined into Li-like nitrogen ions. Intense radiation at a wavelength of 24.77 nm was observed, indicating possible lasing at the 3d(5/2) - 2p(3/2) transition in Li-like nitrogen.

Single-pulse low-energy-driven transient inversion X-ray lasers

The paper deals with some aspects of a new pump method applied to collisional transient X-ray lasers working with ions of the Ni-like isoelectronic sequence. Specifically, Ni-like silver is the element of main interest. It is shown that a single profiled picosecond pulse with energy of about 1 J is able to excite efficiently the active medium. A small amount of the produced plasma facilitates its heating and following excitation. Application of other available pump laser systems and the resulting medium kinetics are analyzed. Pump pulse profiling and control over the pulse shape in a laser driver are highlighted on the background of the recent development in laser driver technology. Prospects and possible development trends are discussed as well.

Fast capillary discharge plasma as a preformed medium for longitudinally pumped collisional x-ray lasers

Simulations of plasma dynamics in a fast capillary discharge are presented. The temporal dependence of the plasma column’s resistance validates the one-dimensional model that was used in the numerical simulations. Numerical analysis of the laser absorption determines the pump parameter range for efficient excitation of longitudinally pumped transient collisional x-ray lasers.

Prospects of ultrafast x-ray absorption investigations using laboratory based sources

Ultrafast X-ray absorption spectroscopy (UXAS) offers the opportunity to investigate function-structure relationships of complex organic molecules or biological functional subunits without the need of crystallization. Of special interest from the viewpoint of structural biology is the region of K-edges of transition metals between 5 and 10 keV. Regardless of successful application of time-resolved diffraction techniques to investigations of crystal dynamics using synchrotron and laboratory based sources there are only very few examples for application of UXAS to revealing the structural dynamics in biomolecular systems. This is mainly caused by the lack of broadband ultrafast x-ray sources as well as of appropriate optics adapted to these sources. Due to the long-data-recording time in UXAS experiments the sample integrity is mainly determined by the average power of the pump pulses inducing the structural changes. Using a fixed energy of the pump pulse the latter one is determined by the repetition rate of the pump laser. In this paper we discuss the prospects of UXAS comparing fs laser plasma sources with different repetition rates in combination with tailor-made optics based on highly annealed pyrolytic graphite (HAPG).