X-ray laser developments at PHELIX

B. Aurand1,3,4,*, T. Kuehl1,3, V. Bagnoud1, B. Ecker1,2,3, U. Eisenbarth1, D. C. Hochhaus1,4,6, P. Neumayer1,4, B. Zielbauer1,2*, D. Zimmer1,3,5, K. Cassou5, S. Daboussi5, O. Guilbaud5, J. Habib5, S. Kazamias5, D. Ros5, J. Seres7, C. Spielmann7
1 GSI Helmholtzzentrum fr Schwerionenforschung GmbH Darmstadt, Ger.; 2 Helmholtz Institute Jena, Ger.; 3 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Ger.; 4 EMMI, GSI Darmstadt, Ger.; 5Universit Paris Sud 11, Fr.; 6Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University Frankfurt, Ger.; 7 Friedrich

Schiller University Jena, Ger. *Email address: b.aurand@gsi.de

Development of x-ray lasers using the PHELIX laser at the GSI Helmholtz center for heavy-ion research [1] is targeting a number of applications of novel x-ray sources in combination with energetic heavy-ion beams. This includes Thomson scattering diagnostics of heavy-ion driven plasmas, x-ray opacity measurements, and x-ray laser spectroscopy of highly-charged ions. At PHELIX, the chirped pulse amplification scheme is employed, with the goal to achieve pulse powers in the petawatt range. Total pulse energies above 100 J can be delivered onto the target. Double pulses with individually adjustable pulse duration, energy ratio and variable delay can be prepared in the front-end of the laser. This way PHELIX is an attractive pumping source also for plasma x-ray lasers. Producing the double pulse in the front-end of the PHELIX laser considerably simplifies the setup, especially for the larger beam diameters required at elevated energies. A further improvement specifically useful for the application to x-ray lasers is the use of a 90 degree off-axis parabola for focusing. At a slight deviation from the standard geometry, a very sharp line focus can be produced. Fine tuning of the traveling wave characteristics required by the short inversion life-time of the laser plasma is performed by slight changes of the compressor geometry, controlled by an auto-correlation scheme utilizing the double pulses for time resolution. Experimental results achieved using these developments will be presented. Developments centered on the application of a novel double-pulse GRIP-like pumping scheme, DGRIP, where non-normal incidence geometry is used for both the pre- and the main pulse for transient pumped Ni-like x-ray lasers [2,3]. This scheme was used at lower energy levels to pump soft x-ray lasers in the 50 100 eV regime as well as for pulse energies above 100 J for the pumping of shorter wavelength soft xray lasers [4]. Searching for an efficient seeding source for plasma x-ray lasers a new x-ray parametric amplification (XPA) process in neutral gases was identified [5]. High-order harmonic radiation created in a gas cell was amplified in the same medium. A gain of up to 8x10 was obtained for 40eV photons created by a 350fs ~10 mJ pulse in argon and 260eV photons created by a 6fs ~1.5 mJ pulse in helium. This new scheme reduces the pumping threshold for intense soft x-ray sources with comparable conversion efficiencies to plasma XRLs into the millijoule level. References [1] V. Bagnoud et al., Appl. Phys. B,DOI 10.1007/s00340-009-3855-7 [2] D. Zimmer et al., Optics Express 16, 10398 (2008), [3] D. Zimmer et al., Opt. Lett. 35, 450 (2010) [4] D. Zimmer et al., submitted to Phys. Rev. A in 2010 [5] J.Seres et al. ; Nature Physics 10.1038/nphys1638