Polarization dependence of x-ray production from laser produced solid plasmas

Laser produced plasmas are very good sources of both soft and hard x-rays. We report measurements of the x-ray yield (of both characteristic and continuum emission) and plasma temperature and their polarization dependence using femtosecond laser produced copper plasma. Circularly polarized light seems to suppress the line emission where as it does not cause any change in the yield of the high-energy part of the continuum. (author)