Author :
Chanteloup, J.C. ; Salmon, E. ; Sauteret, C. ; Zou, J.P. ; Migus, A. ; Zeitoun, P. ; Klisnick, A. ; Carillon, A. ; Foucade, P. ; Hubert, S. ; Jamelot, G. ; Ros, D. ; McPhee, A.G. ; O´Rourke, R.M.N. ; Keenan, R. ; Lewis, C.L.S. ; Nickles, P. ; Janulewicz,
Author_Institution :
Lab. pour l´Utilisation des Lasers Intenses, Ecole Polytech., Palaiseau, France
Abstract :
Summary form only given. High efficiency of the transient collisional excitation (TCE) pumping of X-ray lasers has been demonstrated recently. TCE relies an the rapid increase of the electron temperature in a preformed plasma irradiated with a short picosecond pulse. This plasma is created by a sub-nanosecond pulse and contains a predominant proportion of the lasant ions. The gain duration is limited to a few ps by several effects such as plasma cooling or ionization while the transit time of the amplified emission along a 1 cm long plasma column is 33 ps. This results in the temporal detuning of the optimal plasma conditions as the X-ray laser pulse propagates. A way to overcome this detuning is to use a travelling wave irradiation of the plasma at the velocity of the X-ray laser pulse. We perform this task by laterally pumping the gain medium by focusing an inhomogeneous pulse (IP) along the plasma column.
Keywords :
X-ray lasers; high-speed optical techniques; plasma applications; plasma production by laser; 1 cm; 33 ps; Ag; X-ray laser; X-ray laser pulse; X-ray lasers; amplified emission; electron temperature; gain duration; gain medium; inhomogeneous pulse focusing; ionization; lasant ions; laterally pumping; plasma column; plasma cooling; preformed plasma; sub-nanosecond pulse; sub-ps TW pulse; transient collisional excitation pumping; transient pumping; traveling-wave scheme; travelling wave irradiation; Cooling; Electrons; Laser excitation; Optical pulses; Plasma temperature; Plasma waves; Plasma x-ray sources; Pulse amplifiers; Pump lasers; X-ray lasers;
