Investigation of soft x-ray reflective coatings. Final report, February 1-August 30, 1983

Current fusion experiments require efficient soft x-ray reflective coatings on the optics of diagnostic instrumentation, in order to record the images and spectra of x-ray emissions from laser fusion targets in the 30 eV to 1 keV energy range. The advent of the routine availability of selectively reflecting soft x-ray coatings, on a series of mirrors optimized for wavelengths of interest, would make possible fast multi-channel target diagnostics. Sorting the orders of light dispersed by conventional grating and crystal monochromators would also be possible; in fact such coatings could be used alone as low-resolution x-ray analyzers