Focusing of a tabletop soft-x-ray laser beam and laser ablation.

We focused the beam of a high-repetition-rate capillary-discharge tabletop laser operating at a wavelength of 46.9 nm, using a spherical Si/Sc multilayer mirror. The energy densities significantly exceeded the thresholds for the ablation of metals.

Generation of millijoule-level soft-x-ray laser pulses at a 4-Hz repetition rate in a highly saturated tabletop capillary discharge amplifier.

Laser pulses with energies of as much as 1 mJ were generated at a wavelength of 46.9 nm by single-pass amplification in a 34.5 cm-long Ne-like Ar capillary discharge plasma.

Operation and output pulse characteristics of an extremely compact capillary-discharge tabletop soft-x-ray laser.

We report on the operating parameters and laser output pulse characteristics of an extremely compact discharge-pumped 46.9-nm laser of a size comparable with that of many widely utilized visible and ultraviolet gas lasers. This capillary-discharge laser generated subnanosecond laser pulses with energies of as much as 25microJ by single-pass amplification in an 18.