Laser assisted heating of extreme ultraviolet-emitting z-pinch plasmas

A low-current and low-compression z-pinch nitrogen plasma is heated up by means of a short laser pulse. Spectra are taken in the extreme ultraviolet spectral range from 11 to 18 nm to estimate the heating effect. Without additional laser heating the initial plasma conditions are ne≅1017 cm-3 and Te≅11 eV. The additional laser heating causes an increase in the electron temperature of about a factor of 5 to Te≅57 eV, whereas the electron density nearly remains at the initial value. The experimentally determined values are compared to the results obtained by means of simulations and are in fairly good agreement.