[en] Back in the early 1980's the X-ray laser program required a new level of understanding and measurements of the atomic physics of highly charged ions. The electron-beam ion trap (EBIT) was developed and built at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as part of the effort to understand and measure the cross sections and wavelengths of highly charged ions. In this paper we will discuss some of the early history of EBIT and how it was used to help in the development of X-ray lasers. EBIT's capability was unique and we will show some of the experimental results obtained over the years that were done related to X-ray lasers. As X-ray lasers have now become a table-top tool we will show some new areas of research that involve understanding the index of refraction in partially ionized plasmas and suggest new areas where EBIT may be able to contribute

[en] Nearly four decades ago H-like and He-like resonantly photo-pumped laser schemes were proposed for producing X-ray lasers. However, demonstrating these schemes in the laboratory has proved to be elusive. One challenge has been the difficulty of finding an adequate resonance between a strong pump line and a line in the laser plasma that drives the laser transition. Given a good resonance, a second challenge has been to create both the pump and laser plasma in close proximity so as to allow the pump line to transfer its energy to the laser material. With the advent of the X-FEL at LCLS we now have a tunable X-ray laser source that can be used to replace the pump line in previously proposed laser schemes and allow researchers to study the physics and feasibility of photo-pumped laser schemes. In this paper we model the Na-pumped Ne X-ray laser scheme that was proposed and studied many years ago by replacing the Na He-α pump line at 1127 eV with the X-FEL at LCLS. We predict gain on the 4f - 3d transition at 231 (angstrom). We also examine the feasibility of photo-pumping He-like V and lasing on the 4f - 3d transition at 38.7 (angstrom), which would be within the water-window. In addition we look at the possibility of photo-pumping Ne-like Fe and creating gain on the 4d - 3p transition at 53 (angstrom) and the 3p - 3s transition at 255 (angstrom)

[en] Nearly four decades ago H-like and He-like resonantly photo-pumped laser schemes were proposed for producing X-ray lasers. However, demonstrating these schemes in the laboratory has proved to be elusive because of the difficulty of finding a strong resonant pump line. With the advent of the X-ray free electron laser (X-FEL) at the SLAC Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) we now have a tunable X-ray laser source that can be used to replace the pump line in previously proposed laser schemes and allow researchers to study the physics and feasibility of resonantly photo-pumped laser schemes. In this paper we use the X-FEL at 1174 eV to photo-pump the singly excited 1s2p state of He-like Ne to the doubly excited 2p3p state and model gain on the 2p3p-2p2s transition at 175 eV and the 2p3p-1s3p transition at 1017 eV. One motivation for studying this scheme is to explore possible quenching of the gain due to strong non-linear coupling effects from the intense X-FEL beam We compare this scheme with photo-pumping the He-like Ne ground state to the 1s3p singly excited state followed by lasing on the 3p-2s and 3d-2p transitions at 158 and 151 eV. Experiments are being planned at LCLS to study these laser processes and coherent quantum effects.

[en] The technique of using a nsec pulse to preform and ionize the plasma followed by a psec pulse to heat the plasma has enabled low-Z nickel-like ions to achieve saturated output when driven by small lasers with less than ten joules of energy. We model experiments done using the COMET laser at LLNL and the P 102 laser at Limeil to produce Ni-like Pd and Ag lasers. The COMET experiments use a 2 J, 600 ps prepulse followed 700 psec later by a 6 J, 6 psec drive pulse in a 1.6 cm long line focus. The P102 experiments used a somewhat larger energy and were able to use different combinations of frequency doubled light for both the prepulse and short pulse drive. The LASNEX code is used to calculate the hydrodynamic evolution of the plasma and provide the temperatures and densities to the CRETIN code, which then does the kinetics calculations to determine the gain. The temporal and spatial evolution of the plasmas are studied both with and without radiation transport included to understand the role of the self photopumping process on the gain of the Ni-like 4f → 4d laser lines as well as the gain of the usual collisionally driven Ni-like 4d → 4p laser lines. In particular we study why the 4f → 4d line lases well only when frequency doubled light is used with the prepulse in the P 102 experiments. Experimental results are presented for Ni-like Pd including two-dimensional near-field and far-field images

[en] With the advent of tabletop X-ray lasers that operate at high repetition rate more emphasis is being put on finding useful applications for these lasers. The 14.7 nm Ni-like Pd X-ray laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is being used to do many interferometer experiments. As detailed quantitative comparisons are done between experiments and code simulations it is clear that some of the assumptions used to analyze the experiments need to be modified as one explores plasmas that are only a few times ionized. In the case of aluminium plasmas that have been analyzed with interferometers there has been some unusual behavior where the fringe lines bend the wrong way. In this work we will discuss how the index of refraction for aluminium is far more complicated than generally assumed because there are significant contributions to the index from the continuum and line structure of the bound electrons that can dominate the free electron contribution and even cause the index to be greater than one. We will also discuss some potential applications of the high repetition rate Ne-like Ar X-ray laser at 46.9 nm. In particular we will present modeling that shows how the Ar laser could be used to modify the absorption coefficient of a helium plasma and allow one to study the kinetics of plasmas with very low temperatures of a few eV. We will also discuss frequency doubling of the 46.9 nm laser

[en] Over the last decade, X-ray lasers in the wavelength range14 - 47 nm have been used to do interferometry of plasmas. Just as for optical interferometry of plasmas, the experimental analysis assumed that the index of refraction is due only to the free electrons. This makes the index of refraction less then one. Recent experiments in Al plasmas have observed fringe lines bend the wrong way as though the electron density is negative. We show how the bound electrons can dominate the index of refraction in many plasmas and make the index greater than one or enhance the index such that one would greatly overestimate the density of the plasma using interferometry

[en] High-precision measurements are presented of candidate line pairs for resonant spoiling of x-ray lasing transitions in the nickel-like W⁴⁶⁺, the neon-like Fe¹⁶⁺, and the neon-like La⁴⁷⁺ x-ray lasers. Our measurements were carried out with high-resolution crystal spectrometers, and a typical precision of 20--50 ppM was achieved. While most resonances appear insufficient for effective photo-spoiling, two resonance pairs are identified that provide a good overlap. These are the 4p_1/2 → 3d_3/2 transition in nickel-like W⁴⁶⁺ with the 2p_3/2 → 1s_1/2 transition in hydrogenic Al¹²⁺, and the 3s_1/2 → 2p_3/2 transition in neon-like La⁴⁷⁺ with the 1¹S₀-2¹P₁ line in heliumlike Ti²⁰⁺

[en] Over the last several years we have predicted and observed plasmas with an index of refraction greater than one in the soft X-ray regime. These plasmas are usually a few times ionized and have ranged from low-Z carbon plasmas to mid-Z tin plasmas. Our main computational tool has been the average atom code AVATOMKG that enables us to calculate the index of refraction for any plasma at any wavelength. In the last year we have improved this code to take into account many-atomic collisions. This allows the code to converge better at low frequencies. In this paper we present our search for plasmas with strong anomalous dispersion that could be used in X-ray laser interferometer experiments to help understand this phenomena. We discuss the calculations of anomalous dispersion in Na vapor and Ne plasmas near 47 nm where we predict large effects. We also discuss higher Z plasmas such as Ce and Yb plasmas that look very interesting near 47 nm. With the advent of the FLASH X-ray free electron laser in Germany and the LCLS X-FEL coming online at Stanford in another year we use the average atom code to explore plasmas at higher X-ray energy to identify potential experiments for the future. In particular we look near the K shell lines of near solid carbon plasmas and predict strong effects. During the next decade X-ray free electron lasers and other X-ray sources will be available to probe a wider variety of plasmas at higher densities and shorter wavelengths so understanding the index of refraction in plasmas will be even more essential

[en] The wavelengths, radiative transition rates, satellite intensity factors, and fluorescence yields are presented for dielectronic satellites of nine hydrogen-like ions ranging from Ne⁹⁺ to Xe/sup 53+/. Dipole transitions from 2l n'l' → 1s n''l'', where n',n'' = 2, 3, 4, are included. In this work, relativistic multiconfiguration wave functions are used to calculate energy levels as well as the Auger and radiative transition rates. copyright 1987 Academic Press, Inc

[en] Experimental investigations on the conditions to achieve transient gain in neon-like Ti and nickel-like molybdenum XUV laser pumped by a 10-HZ sub-Joule femtosecond laser are presented. The 4d-4p (J = 0-1) λ 18.9 nm and 4f-4d (J = 1-11) λ = 22.6 nm lines in Ni-like Mo as well as the 3p-3s (J = 0-1) λ = 32.6 nm line in neon-like titanium have been observed. The Ni-like laser lines show a threshold behavior with respect to the pump irradiance as they appear only above 10¹⁵ W/cm². Simulation for the fs-laser pumped Ni-like Mo XUV laser are also presented