Optimization toward a high-average-brightness soft-x-ray laser pumped at grazing incidence

Abstract

We report the near-field imaging characterization of a 10 Hz Ni-like 18.9 nm molybdenum soft-x-ray laser pumped in a grazing incidence pumping (GRIP) geometry with a table-top laser driver. We investigate the effect of varying the GRIP angle on the spatial behavior of the soft-x-ray laser source. After multiparameter optimization, we were able to find conditions to generate routinely a high-repetition-rate soft-x-ray laser with an energy level of up to 3 microJ/pulse and to 6x10(17) photons/s/mm2/mrad2/(0.1% bandwidth) average brightness and 1x10(28) photons/s/mm2/mrad2/(0.1% bandwidth) peak brightness.