Photopumped XUV laser studies at Cornell

Summary form only given. Photopumping XUV lasers have been studied using the 0.5-TW Lion accelerator at Cornell University. To produce localized and intense X-ray bright spots which can be used as a pump for the Al-Mg photopumped laser scheme, the X-pinch configuration is being investigated. This involves two Al wires which cross at one or more points connecting the electrodes of 30-ns risetime and a ~500-kA peak current pulsed power generator. The pinch plasmas were viewed radially with various diagnostics, including a time integrated multifilter X-ray pinhole camera, visible and X-ray streak cameras, crystal spectrographs, and filtered photoconductors. Electron densities (~10²⁰ cm ^-3) and temperatures (~400 eV) were obtained using the Al K-shell line intensity ratios. The required pump power of 10 GW was derived from the lasing power (for a given lasing wavelength and gain) divided by the pumping efficiency. The experiments suggest that the X-pinch plasmas were too hot for the Li-like Al pump ions in the experiments to date