This book provides a comprehensive review of the present status of achievements in the area of soft X-ray laser sources, supplemented by information about sources based on relativistic laser matter interaction and their future, and incoherent sources within a very broad spectral range. The diversity of demonstrated or planned applications presented in the book supports the thesis that such sources have now reached a mature stage of development.

There is a significant effort worldwide to develop very bright, ultra-short duration, radiation sources in the extreme ultraviolet and X-ray spectral regions, driven by a diversity of potential applications in nearly all branches of science. This book updates the status in this field and focuses on developments in laser plasma-based methods. The scheme of transient inversion proves its robustness by being dominant in the area of repetitive X-ray lasers pumped at grazing-incidence-geometry by optical lasers of moderate energy at increasing repetition rates - these characteristics enable them to be used in university-class laboratories. Experimental and theoretical progress associated with the seeding technique by high harmonics is well covered. This technique is important as it is also considered from the perspective of seeding X-ray free electron lasers. Dramatic progress in laser development and extending the available power range to the petawatt level is stimulating a new generation of methods of ultra-bright and ultra-short pulses of energetic X-rays. These methods, as well as some elements of attoscience based on high harmonics generation, are well represented. Finally, a comprehensive survey of possible applications of the described sources in different areas of science constitutes, by defining the parameter set of interest, a framework for considering the direction further developments will take.

Autorentext
Karol A. Janulewicz; Chang Hee Nam Advanced Photonics Research Institute, GIST, Gwangju, Korea

Zusammenfassung
This book provides a thorough account of the current status of achievements made in the area of soft X-Ray laser source development and of the increasingly diverse applications being demonstrated using such radiation sources. There is significant effort worldwide to develop very bright, short duration radiation sources in the X-Ray spectral region driven by the multitude of potential applications in all branches of science. This book contains updates on several different approaches for comparative purposes but concentrates on developments in the area of laser-produced plasmas, whereby transient population inversion and gain between ion states is pumped by optical lasers interacting with pre-formed plasmas. Topics covered will include Laser-driven XRLs, Collisional XRLs, Recombination XRLs, Transient Inversion Collisional XRLs, Optical Field Ionization XRLs, Alternative XRL, pumping schemes Theory and simulations of XRL gain media and beam properties High order harmonic sources of XUVradiation, Free-electron lasers and other accelerator based X-Ray sources, X-Ray Laser drives, X-Ray optics and instrumentation Spectroscopy, and other diagnostics of laser media Applications of XRLs.

Inhalt
Part 1: X-Ray Laser Systems
Recent results and future plans for XRLs using the TARANIS laser facility
C.L.S. Lewis et al
Source development and novel applications of laser-driven plasma x-ray lasers in JAEA
T. Kawachi et al
Theoretical study of Ni-like Ta XRL driven by One 2? pulse with duration of 100 ps on upgraded ShenguangII facility
Z. Guoping, Q. Xiumei, Z. Wudi
X-ray laser developments at PHELIX
B. Zielbauer et al
LASERIX : an open facility for developments of EUV and soft X-ray lasers and applications
D. Ros et al
Using the X-FEL as a source to investigate photo-pumped X-ray lasers
J. Nilsen and H. A. Scott
Part 2: Repetitive X-Ray Lasers
Demonstration of an all-diode-pumped soft X-ray laser and other advances in table-top soft X-ray lasers
J. J. Rocca et al
Saturated XUV lasing down to 8.85 nm using the grazing-incidence scheme
J.E. Balmer, C. Imesch, and F. Staub
Double-pulse single-beam grazing-incidence pumping (DGRIP)
D. Zimmer et al
Development and application of plasma-waveguide based soft x-ray lasers
Jiunn-Yuan. Lin et al
Development of silver tape target system for high repetition X-ray laser
Masaharu Nishikino et al
Part 3: X-Ray Laser Amplifiers Seeding
Temporal coherence and spectral width of seeded and ASE XUV lasersA. Klisnick et al
Wave perspective on high harmonics amplification in a high-gain medium with level degeneracy
C. M. Kim, K. A. Janulewicz, and J. Lee
Laser driven parametric amplification in the xuv and soft-x-ray spectral range
J. Seres et al
Characterization of a seeded optical-field ionized collisional soft x-ray laser
S. Sebban et al
Optimization of soft x-ray amplifiers by tailoring plasma
hydrodynamics
E. Oliva et al
Measurement of the temporal coherence of a seeded GRIP transient Mo soft X-ray laser
L.M. Meng et al
**Part 4: Sources Based on Relativistic Interaction
Extreme field limits in the ultra-relativistic interaction of electromagnetic waves with plasmas
S. V. Bulanov et al
Generation of coherent X-ray radiation with relativistic nonlinear processes
Y. Kato et al
Part 5: High-harmonics
Generation of ultrashort attosecond high-harmonic pulses from chirp-compensated Ne harmonics
Dong Hyuk Ko et al
An intense kHz and aberration-free two-color high harmonic source for seeding FEL and XRL
G. Lambert et al
Tuning of high-order harmonics for soft x-ray laser seeding
Boris Ecker et al
Generation of small band width coherent extreme ultraviolet radiation and its application
L.V. Dao, S. Teichmann, K.B. Dinh, and P. Hannaford
Highly directive high harmonic generation from solid target plasma for biomedical and medicine applicationsH. Kuroda et al
High harmonic generation by using laser-ablation two-compounds target scheme
M. Suzuki, M. Baba, R. A. Ganeev, and H. Kuroda
Part 6: Incoherent Short-Wavelength Sources
EUV-induced surface modification of polymers
A. Bartnik et al
Study on fundamental processes of laser welded metals observed with intense x-ray beams
T. Muramatsu et al
XUV radiation emitted by capillary pinching discharge
M. Vrbova et al
EUV radiation of pulse high-current proximity-wall-stabilized discharges
K. Kolacek et al
Part 7: X-Ray Laser Applications*
Probing high energy density plasmas with EUV and X-ray lasers
G J Tallents et al
Measuring the electron density gradients of dense plasmas by X-ray laser deflectometry
J. Nejdl, M. Kozlová, T. Mocek, and B. Rus
Laser-matter interaction studies using X-ray laser and double Lloyd's mirror interferometer
M. Kozlova et al*
Application of laser plasma x-ray beam i...