Demonstration of a saturated Ni-like Ag x-ray laser pumped by a single profiled laser pulse from a 10-Hz Ti:sapphire laser system

Abstract

A variant of a grazing-incidence pumping (GRIP) scheme for Ni-like x-ray lasers using a single shaped pulse from a 10-Hz Ti:sapphire laser system has been demonstrated. Experimental and numerical results show that efficient excitation leading to the lasing process can be achieved by controlled shaping of the pump laser pulse. Such a pulse has been defined for a silver slab target. A gain coefficient as high as $76\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ was estimated. Results indicate that the nanosecond amplified spontaneous emission background of the leading edge of the driving pulse is decisive for an efficient pumping process in this version of GRIP.