Potential for Thomson scatter with an X-ray laser

The authors present an analysis of an X-ray laser Thomson scatter experiment attempted at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory. Although the experiment was for technical reasons not completed, an analysis of the feasibility is instructive. X-ray lasers are potentially a useful source for this type of experiment as they have high brightness, short pulse duration, and low divergence. Thomson scatter has proved to be a powerful diagnostic technique in low density plasmas and the extension of this diagnostic technique to shorter wavelengths in the XUV region would allow probing of plasmas at higher densities where classical plasma models such as the Debye-Huckel model breakdown. The authors show in their analysis that, at current output levels, self-emission may hamper attempts to probe high-density plasmas. However, a range of interesting plasmas can be probed which would be too optically thick for optical probing.