Water-window soft X-ray source using cryogenic Ar laser plasma

Abstract

A water-window soft X-ray source using laser plasma from a cryogenic solid Ar target has demonstrated an average output power of 0.5 W with continuously repeated pulses at 3.3 Hz. A higher output power of up to 1 W at 10 Hz can be achieved by simply improving the target system. The characteristics of the Ar ion debris from the plasma were also studied and the kinetic energies of the main ions were found to be less than 2 keV. Using the measured ion spectrum, the erosion damage sputtered by Ar ions on the silicon nitride membrane was studied and the results indicated that the damage should cause no problems in the application of a contact soft X-ray microscope. Our laser plasma X-ray source will provide a compact and convenient source suitable for the soft X-ray microscopy in place of conventional synchrotron facilities.

A study on soft x-ray spectra from pulsed 1 μm Nd:YAG laser-induced ytterbium plasmas

“…Compared with other methods, such as electron microscopy, this soft x-ray radiation source imaging does not need special sample processing, enabling the possibility for transient imaging of intact living biological cells or original samples of frozen cells. Nowadays, characterizing and optimizing imaging light sources in the water window region are a hot research topic and in progress [12][13][14][15][16]. Highbrightness x-ray light sources based on synchrotron radiation and free electron lasers are capable of producing high resolution microscopy images, which is difficult for biological researchers in a laboratory environment to access because both facilities are very large and expensive.…”