Titanium plasma source for capillary discharge extreme ultraviolet lasers

A technique to generate jets of pure Titanium plasma is presented. A Ti wire is exploded in an Alumina capillary sealed with 1 atm. of air inside. The generated plasma emerges from the capillary (to a high-vacuum environment) by ripping a thin Ti foil that seals one of the capillary ends. The generated plasma jets have a velocity of up to 4.5±0.5 mm/μs, an electron temperature of 1.5±0.5 eV and an ion density of 2.7±1x1017/cc. The plasma source was designed for a capillary discharge extreme ultraviolet laser experiment, but might also be useful to other application such as a target for Z-pinch experiments