X-ray laser research at Physics International

Summary Form only given, as follows. Photopumped and recombination X-ray laser schemes are under investigation on the DNA/PITHON 3 TW facility. For the sodium-neon resonant photopumped scheme, DNA/PITHON is used to implode a sodium-bearing plasma, which acts as the pump, and a secondary capacitor bank is used to drive a neon gas puff Z-pinch, which is the lasant. Characterization of the pinched sodium plasma and power measurements have been carried out. The latter showed 65 GW in the Na X 1s/sup 2/-1s2p /sup 1/P line. In earlier experiments, neon gas was imploded onto sodium-fluoride-coated targets, on-axis, but insufficient sodium pump powers were obtained. However, some very interesting spectral features, which could be an indication of recombination pumping, were observed in the neon plasmas formed when neon was imploded onto aluminum targets.<>