Ablation study using soft x-ray laser

Abstract

Developments in short-pulse high-power lasers have advanced dramatically. Advances in physical studies and high-power laser technologies enabled us to realize laboratory-size laser-driven plasma-based soft x-ray laser sources. Ablation is the direct interaction of the laser pulse with matter. Soft x-ray lasers have been also applied to ablation studies. Ablation phenomena using the picosecond soft x-ray laser have been investigated. The low ablation threshold of materials is due to strong absorption of soft x-rays and a sufficiently short pulse duration. In this paper, some typical results from ablation experiments we have conducted will be introduced.