Feature

Discharge Pumped Soft-X-Ray Laser

J.J. Rocco, V.N. Shlyaptsev, F.G. Tomasel, O.D. Cortazar, D. Hartshorn, J.L.A. China, and M.C. Marconi, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.

Following the first demonstrations of soft-x-ray lasing in the plasmas generated by large laser facilities in 1984,1 researchers have pursued more compact and efficient X-ray lasers that could have widespread use in applications. With this motivation, recent experiments have explored amplification schemes that use smaller drivers, leading to much progress during the past year.