Progress In Pulsed Power Discharge Driven X-Ray Laser Research

In experiments performed during the past two years on Proto II (a 10-TW pulsed-power accelerator), we imploded annular plasmas onto thin-walled annular x-ray laser targets in order to create both a radiation pump source and an x-ray laser medium. For x-ray lasing the Z-pinch must be axially uniform, must efficiently produce the pump radiation, yet not destroy the laser medium on the cylindrical axis of symmetry until after the x-ray laser pulse. To characterize the pump source x-rays and lasant conditions, we regularly field a large number of x-ray diagnostics. In recent experiments, we produced over 15 kJ of >1-keV pump radiation with an imploding neon gas-puff load, recorded spectra from the pump source and lasant, and measured the axial pump source asymmetry. We are considering both recombination and resonance-pumped x-ray laser schemes.