Progress has been made in the last six years in the development of soft x-ray lasers. Advances in their performance (wavelength range and gain) have been achieved together with simplifications of the technology required to generate gain. These achievements have, in part, been stimulated by the first applications of soft x-ray lasers to soft x-ray microscopy and micro-holography. The impact soft x-ray laster technology will have on these and other fields in science and industry is critically dependent on the cost of these lasers. Fortunately, significant soft x-ray gain has been demonstrated in plasmas generated by relatively low energy river lasers; however,to date the maximum gain-length product achieved in these systems has been less than desired. The PI proposes to identify the factors crucial to achieving high gain using novel diagnostics to detect gain with unprecedented sensitivity and provide a high resolution soft x-ray image of plasmas produced by new target configurations. In the second phase of the work, factors such as plasma uniformity and refraction critical to the achievement of high gain-length in extended plasmas will be identified and controlled in order to produce a high intensity output suitable for applications. In the third year soft x-ray mirrors will be installed to implement a laser cavity. In addition to advancing our understanding of the physics issues, this research is aimed at producing a moderate cost table-top soft x-ray laser suitable for sub-optical resolution lithographic inspection and a variety of other applications in science and industry.
