Abstract: A device for fabricating a target of a lasing material and a pump material or lasing at X-ray wavelengths wherein one of the materials occurs naturally as a gas. A substrate of the other material is cooled below the freezing point of the one material occuring naturally as a gas. Then a gaseous atmosphere of the latter material is supplied to the cooled substrate so that a frozen layer of the latter material condenses onto the substrate to form the target.

Abstract: A device for producing extended plasmas for x-ray lasers. In an evacuated using, a pair of tungsten blocks are placed just above a target surface and spaced apart to form a channel. A high power laser beam is focused to a point on the target creating a plasma between the blocks. As the plasma expands away from the target in the z-direction, the tungsten blocks confine the plasma in the y-direction and plasma species of higher stages of ionization are formed into a jet of rectangular x-y cross section in the z-direction by the blocks. The plasma remains confined in the y-dimension or is focused in this direction above the blocks where sufficient amplification occurs to provide x-ray lasing along the x-axis.

Abstract: A stimulated emission device operative in the ultraviolet and soft x-ray regions. A high-power infrared laser is focused on a slab target vaporizing the material and generating highly stripped target ions with varying velocities. Just prior to laser initiation, a gaseous environment of helium, hydrogen, argon or neon is injected to surround the target (e.g., carbon) at a pressure of from 1-10 Torr. The injected gas and associated electrons modify and mix the interacting particles originating from the vaporized target. Ion-atom resonance, charge-transfer reactions take place to form excited-state ions to produce amplified stimulated emission in the 300-800 Angstrom region.