X-ray radiation from laser plasma. Chapter 3

X-radiation plays a significant role in the field of laser-produced plasmas. The high-power densities of focused laser beams can easily heat matter to kilovolt electron temperatures producing strong X-ray radiation. Energy contained in X-ray radiation can be a significant fraction of the incident laser energy and can strongly influence the formation and evolution of the laser-produced plasmas. X-rays also have been used extensively to diagnose the dense laser deposition and transport regions of laser-produced plasmas since they can readily escape from the interior of the plasma and are not affected by the large electric and magnetic fields generated in the plasma. X-rays have also been a useful diagnostic tool for studying the hot dense cores of high-density implosions. This chapter is organized in three sections. The first section describes the production mechanisms for X-rays from different laser-plasma regions concentrating on spectral traits and their interpretation. In the second section various applications of X-ray spectroscopy for plasma diagnostics are discussed. In the final section X-ray laser research is dealt with. (author). 257 refs., 25 figs