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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

Investigation of Early Plasma Evolution Induced by Ultrashort Laser Pulses
Published on: July 2, 2012
Soft X-Ray Emission of Laser-Produced Plasmas: Comparison for 30-ps and 20-ns Laser Pulses
H van Brug1, G E van Dorssen, M J van der Wiel
1Association Euratom-FOM, FOM Institute for Plasma Physics "Rijnhuizen," Edisonbaan 14, 3439 MN Nieuwegein, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Soft x-ray emission spectra (250-875 eV) are presented for plasmas, produced by picosecond and nanosecond frequency-doubled Nd:YAG-glass laser pulses incident on 14 different target materials. The emitted spectra have been corrected for various apparatus functions which enables a direct comparison between plasmas produced by pico- and nanosecond laser pulses. The relative integrated emission intensity as a function of Z number, obtained from the corrected spectra, shows an oscillatory behavior, with distinct maxima for those elements exhibiting a dominant line emission in our photon energy window. We found for our two pulse lengths an approximately equal conversion efficiency from laser light into x-ray photons. General suggestions are given as to what target material should be used for different applications using the laser plasma as x-ray source in the energy range Studied.
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