Laser produced soft x-ray source diagnostics with temporal, spectral, and spatial resolution

Abstract

We demonstrate the use of three diagnostic tools which simultaneously view the target from nearly the same direction, and their results are combined to provide temporally, spectrally, and spatially resolved absolutely calibrated target emission information. To demonstrate this capability, Au targets were irradiated by 1.8 kJ, 3 ns laser pulses to produce broadband soft x-ray emission in the 0.1–3.5 keV spectral range. Target diagnostics included a time-resolved x-ray diode array, each measured a partial spectral band, time-integrated spectrally resolved absolutely calibrated transmission grating spectrometer, and static and time-resolved soft x-ray imagers coupled to a charge-coupled device camera and to a streak camera, respectively, measuring spatially and temporally resolved radiation at the main Au target emission bands. The combined temporally, spectrally, and spatially resolved absolutely calibrated target emission result can be compared to simulations and be used to design and analyze experiments in which the source emission is used as a drive for various physical processes.