Publications Details
Photopumped X-ray laser research on saturn
Using Saturn as a driver, we are pursueing both photoresonantly pumped andphotoionization/recombination lasers. Our lasing targets are gas cells with thin windowsthat are pumped by a z pinch 2 cm away radiating 10 TW. In both schemes the lasant and gasfill is neon. We will present evidence for inversion in the sodium/neon photoresonantscheme but we have yet to detect the lasing transition itself. To increase our chances ofmeasuring this line we have introduced potassium into a sodium z-pinch and have eliminatedoxygen from the gas cell windows. We have measured the spatial dependence of ionizationbalance across the gas cell, and this measurement is consistent with propagation of a shockfront across the gas cell target. We have measured the Li-like neon Sf-3d transition toincrease more rapidly with fill pressure than all other measured lines. Based on this resultwe have performed experiments emphasizing the photoionization/recombination laserscheme that use a flat field grazing incidence spectrometer to provide good spatial resolutionof the 4f-3d, 4d-3p, and Sf-3d lines of Li-like neon. We have attempted a gain lengthmeasurement by imaging parallel to a baffle that varies the length of the target illuminated.