Recent experiments have produced XUV harmonic radiation near 20 nm with conversion efficiencies as high as 10 . Longer wavelength radiation, greater than 50 nm, can be produced with a conversion efficiency exceeding 10 . The use of long focal-length lenses will make it possible to use this technique on the NIF to generate microjoules of coherent tunable XUV radiation. Applications of X-ray Lasers Biological Imaging. When dealing with wet specimens, the radiation dose imparted to the specimen by electron microscopy leads to mass loss and decomposition of specimens.
Resolution is, therefore, limited by radiation damage and exposure time.
Numerous experiments have demonstrated multiphoton processes in the near UV by focusing optical lasers through neutral gases. To extend these experiments to the soft x-ray region, a plasma is necessary both to reduce absorption and to allow for resonant enhancement of the nonlinear susceptibility. Aside from its clear applications, these experiments would allow measurements of nonlinear susceptibility to be made in a regime that is largely unexplored. A NIF laser will permit the generation of a wide variety of particle sources ranging from high-energy electrons and ions to neutrons and other fusion products. The generation of high-energy electrons through parametric instabilities in plasmas is discussed under Plasma Physics .