Saturated operation of a transient collisional x-ray laser

Abstract

Saturation of a low pump energy x-ray laser utilizing a transient inversion mechanism on the $3p\ensuremath{-}3s$ transition at 32.63 nm in Ne-like Ti has been demonstrated. A close to saturation amplification was simultaneously achieved for the $3d\ensuremath{-}3p,$ $J=\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{1}1$ transition at 30.15 nm. Small signal effective transient gain coefficients of $g\ensuremath{\sim}46$ and $\ensuremath{\sim}35{\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$ and gain-length products of 16.7 and 16.9 for these lines were obtained. Experiments demonstrate that it is possible to achieve saturated laser action in a transient regime with Ne-like Ti for a pump energy as low as $\ensuremath{\sim}5\mathrm{J}.$