Subpicosecond Nd:glass Laser System for Kilovolt X-ray Generation

Abstract

We describe a compact Nd:glass chirped pulse amplification laser system capable of producing laser pulses of 150mJ energy and - 1ps duration at 1.053 μm wavelength. This laser system has been used for the generation of subpicosecond pulses at 0.263μm by frequency doubling of the fundamental pulses in a Type-II KDP crystal using a predelay technique. At a laser intensity of approximately 50 GW/cm², the frequency doubling of a 1.5 ps fundamental pulse with this scheme results in a pulse of 0.63 ps duration with an energy conversion efficiency of 40 %. Also, we have characterized experimentally the intense X-ray line emission, especially for the K-shell emission, produced by this laser system.