Enhanced Kα output of Ar and Kr using size optimized cluster target irradiated by high-contrast laser pulses

• Published in: Optics express Vol. 19; no. 25; pp. 25812 - 25822
• Main Authors: Zhang, Lu, Chen, Li-Ming, Yuan, Da-Wei, Yan, Wen-Chao, Wang, Zhao-Hua, Liu, Cheng, Shen, Zhong-Wei, Faenov, Anatoly, Pikuz, Tatiana, Skobelev, Igor, Gasilov, Vladimir, Boldarev, Alexei, Mao, Jing-Yi, Li, Yu-Tong, Dong, Quan-Li, Lu, Xin, Ma, Jing-Long, Wang, Wei-Ming, Sheng, Zheng-Ming, Zhang, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 05.12.2011
• Subjects: Argon - chemistry; Argon - radiation effects; Krypton - chemistry; Krypton - radiation effects; Lasers; Light; Scattering, Radiation
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/OE.19.025812

We observed that increasing the clusters size and laser pulse contrast can enhance the X-ray flux emitted by femtosecond-laser-driven-cluster plasma. By focusing a high contrast laser (10(-10)) on large argon clusters, high flux Kα-like X-rays (around 2.96 keV) is generated with a total flux of 2.5 × 10(11) photons/J in 4π and a conversion efficiency of 1.2 × 10-4. In the case of large Kr clusters, the best total flux for L-shell X-rays is 5.3 × 1011 photons/J with a conversion efficiency of 1.3 × 10-4 and, for the Kα X-ray (12.7 keV), it is 8 × 10(8) photons/J with a conversion efficiency of 1.6 × 10-6. Using this X-ray source, a single-shot high-performance X-ray imaging is demonstrated.