Hard X-ray emission from high intensity short laser pulse produced Al, Mo and Ta plasmas

K-edge and Ross filters techniques were used to measure quantitatively the X-ray emission from laser heated Al, Mo, and Ta plasmas in the range of 10 to 100 keV. The INRS Table Top Terawatt laser system using Chirped Pulse Amplification technique supplied a focused laser pulse of about 300 mJ in 450 fs duration at λ = 0.53 μm, achieving irradiation intensities on the target surface up to 5 × 1017 W/cm2. The experimental results are compared to calculation of the hard X-ray radiation based on bombardment of solid target by electrons. Furthermore, the dependence of X-ray emission on laser energy, irradiation intensity and the target atomic number are discussed.