MRI: Development of an Intense Table-Top Soft X-Ray Laser Source of Picosecond Pulses

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9977677RoccaThis project will develop a table-top soft x-ray laser source of very intense pulses of picosecond duration. The important enabling role of intense soft x-ray coherent radiation in science and technology is well recognized, and has motivated the development of large modem synchrotron radiation facilities. Very recent advances now allow the possibility to develop compact table-top sources of soft x-ray laser radiation with a spatially coherent average power similar to that of a synchrotron beam line, and with more that five orders of magnitude larger peak power. Such table-top sources could greatly impact the national research infrastructure by making intense beams of soft x-ray radiation more widely available, and by enabling new science with the access to a regime of very high soft x-ray peak intensities not presently available.The project will develop a new kind of powerful table-top soft x-ray laser based in the combination of capillary discharges developed in our laboratory with high intensity ultrashort pulse optical laser technology. The combination of these two relatively new but proven technologies should allow the efficient generation of multi-Megawatt picosecond pulses of highly coherent soft x-ray radiation at a variety of soft x-ray wavelengths. The use of a capillary discharge plasma waveguide will allow the PI to make very efficient use of the laser pump radiation, potentially improving the efficiency of laser pumped collisional soft x-ray lasers by one to two orders of magnitude. The major concepts that will enable the proposed research development have been tested experimentally. The proposed development has potential, in collaboration with industry, to make these table-top lasers accessible to a broad community of scientists and engineers nationwide.***