Comparing of Soft X-Ray Pulses Induced by Different Metallic Plasmas

In this work, we report on the characterization of pulsed soft X-rays emitted from laser-produced plasma by different targets. The measurements were performed in a vacuum stainless-steel chamber at 10-7 mbar .The plasma was generated by a pulsed KrF excimer laser of 248 nm laser wavelength, operating at single shot and having a pulses of 23 ns FWHM. The beam was focused on pure Si, Cu and Ta targets. The laser energies were 40, 80 and 120 mJ, concentrated onto a spot of about 0.01 cm2, with a resulting irradiance of 1.7, 3.5 and 5.2x108 Wcm-2. The utilized detector was a very sensitive Faraday cup which opportunely biased was able to record time resolved signals of X-rays and to estimate their energy. The found X-rays energy values were compared to the ion temperature of the target plasma fitting the time resolved ion current signals by the shifted Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution.