Results on soft X-ray amplification by lithium-like ions in recombining plasmas

The authors present the soft X-ray laser experiments performed at Greco ''Interaction Laser-Matiere'' (Paleteau). They are mainly concerned with Lithium-like ions of aluminum in plasmas produced by 1.06 μ Nd-laser. They describe the experimental set-up which performs time-dependent gain measurements. They report results showing a gain-length product of 2 - 2.5 for the 3d - 3d line at 105.7 A. The gain appears during plasma recombination. Comparison is made between experiment and computational model. The possible limiting role of radiation trapping for long plasma columns is discussed. They present the future projects regarding larger gains and new wavelengths