Application of a plasma waveguide to x-ray lasers

A recently developed laser-produced plasma channel is shown to be a promising means to produce a transversely coherent table-top x-ray laser. The channel is ideal for efficient high power laser pumping through optical waveguiding of the pump pulse and also acts as a waveguide for generated x-rays. It is shown that channel creation and guided pulses of moderate duration and energy can be highly effective in producing nonequilibrium plasmas and candidate ions appropriate for soft x-ray lasers. Examples are given for recombination-pumped and collisionally pumped systems