Picosecond soft-x-ray source from subpicosecond laser-produced plasmas

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Abstract
Short-pulse high-intensity laser–plasma interactions are investigated experimentally with temporally and spectrally resolved soft-x-ray diagnostics. We demonstrate that, by adjustment of the incident laser flux, the pulse width of the laser-produced x rays emitted from solid targets may be varied to as short as the picosecond time scale. Bright, picosecond, broadband emission characteristic of a short-scale-length high-density plasma is produced only when a high laser contrast (1010) is used. The results are found to be in qualitative agreement with both the predictions of a simple model of radiation from a collisionally dominated atomic system and the results obtained from a numerical simulation.