Space and time resolved soft x-ray spectra using x-ray transmission gratings

Gold transmission gratings with 0.3 μm spatial period, 0.6 μm thick have been fabricated, and are being used for the spectroscopy of high temperature, laser produced plasmas. A transmission grating has been coupled with a soft x-ray streak camera, producing the first time resolved (20 psec resolution) continous x-ray spectrum over the range 0.1 to 1.5 keV from a laser produced plasma. In addition, a transmission grating has been coupled with a high resolution, Woelter-design x-ray microscope to produce an imaging spectrometer of unprecedented spatial and spectral resolution. In laboratory experiments the imaging spectrometer demonstrated a spectral resolving power, (lambda/Δ lambda) of 200 and a spatial resolution of 1 μm