Coster-Kronig mediated inner-shell X-ray lasers pumped by 20 fs, 100-TW-class lasers

Summary form only given. The development of keV X-ray lasers based on inner-shell atomic transitions requires extremely fast energy deposition on a target in order to effectively compete with the inherently fast (0.1-20 fs) atomic decay processes. The duration of ultrahigh peak power laser systems is now reaching this timescale. In principle, these systems can be used to produce sufficient duration and energy X-rays or electrons for pumping inner-shell transitions. In the paper X-ray laser schemes in which the Coster-Kronig Auger-process is the dominant lower level decay mechanism are described.