Patent ID: 6061379
Filing Date: 2000-05-09
Classification: H01S

Abstract:
A short-pulse plasma laser amplifier, driven by a laser-produced plasma, comprising;laser means to provide several Joules of energy in a femtoseconds long pulse of cross sections comparable to diffraction limited focal spot areas, to provide a maximum energy density;target material means, to serve as a source for the laser plasma, selected from the group consisting of; pulsed-jet high Z gas sources and thin foils;plasma channeling means to confine the plasma-producing laser pulse to said cross sections over axial lengths of the order of centimeters, which exceeds the Rayleigh region, defined as the axial distance at which the laser beam is twice the diameter of the focal plane spot, including laser self-focusing from plasma gradients and auxilliary laser pulses;means for producing low energy, cool electrons within close proximity of the laser-produced plasma channel, to allow ion-electron recombination and cascading to inner shell electron states to provide a population inversion, and;seed laser means to provide initial x-ray photons of an energy matched to the plasma inverted population transition energy and an angular divergence produced by collimation means to provide a short-pulse plasma laser output beam.