Progress in optical-field-ionization soft X-ray lasers at LOA

T. Mocek (1) , Stéphane Sebban (1) , Islam Bettaibi (1) , Philippe Zeitoun (1) , Gabriel Faivre (1) , B. Cros (2) , G. Maynard (2) , A. Butler (3) , C.M. Mckenna (3) , D.J. Spence (3) , A.J. Gonsavles (3) , S.M. Hooker (3) , V. Vorontsov (1) , S. Hallou (1) , Marta Fajardo (4) , Sophie Kazamias (5) , S. Le Pape (6) , P. Mercere (1) , Anne-Sophie Morlens (1) , C. Valentin (1) , Philippe Balcou (1)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
2 LPGP - Laboratoire de physique des gaz et des plasmas
3 Department of Physics [Oxford]
4 GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear
5 LIXAM - Laboratoire d'interaction du rayonnement X avec la matière
6 LULI - Laboratoire pour l'utilisation des lasers intenses

We give on overview of recent advances in collisionally pumped optical field-ionization soft X-ray lasers developed at LOA. Saturated amplification has been achieved on the 5d-5p transition in Xe^8+ at 41.8 nm, and on the 4d-4p transition in Kr^8+ at 32.8 nm. We demonstrate a significant increase of the energy output from the Xe^8+ laser driven within two types of wave-guide. Finally, we present results of a pioneering work aimed to set up and characterize the first true soft X-ray laser chain.

Keywords: Collisional excitation; Femtosecond; Guiding; High harmonic amplification; X-ray laser

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]

T. Mocek, Stéphane Sebban, Islam Bettaibi, Philippe Zeitoun, Gabriel Faivre, et al.. Progress in optical-field-ionization soft X-ray lasers at LOA. Laser and Particle Beams, 2005, 23 (03), pp.351-356. ⟨10.1017/S0263034605050500⟩. ⟨hal-00522400⟩