Control of Bright Picosecond X-Ray Emission from Intense Subpicosecond Laser-Plasma Interactions

Authors

• J. Workman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Anatoly Maksimchuk, University of MichiganFollow
• X. Liu, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• U. Ellenberger, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• J.S. Coe, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• C.-Y. Chien, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Donald P. Umstadter, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

9-18-1995

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Physical Review Letters 75, 2324 (1995). http://prl.aps.org. Copyright © 1995 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

Using temporally and spectrally resolved diagnostics, we show that the pulse duration of laser-produced soft x rays emitted from solid targets can be controlled, permitting a reduction to as short as a few picoseconds. To enable this control, only a single parameter must be adjusted, namely, the intensity of the high-contrast ultrashort laser pulse (400 fs). These results are found to be in qualitative agreement with a simple model of radiation from a collisionally dominated atomic system.