DEVELOPMENT OF A NEODYMIUM-LIKE SOFT X-RAY LASER

THERE IS A WORLD-WIDE EFFORT TO DEVELOP SOFT X-RAY LASERS. HOWEVER MOST OF THE X-RAY LASER CONCEPTS REQUIRE LARGE AND EXPENSIVE POWER SOURCES TO CREATE THE SOFT X-RAY LASER. RECENTLY, A NEW SOFT X-RAY LASER CONCEPT HAS BEEN SUGGESTED THAT REQUIRES SIGNIFICANTLY LESS POWER AND, THEREFORE, WOULDBE CONSIDERABLY LESS EXPENSIVE TO CREATE. THE ND-LIKE ISOELECTRONIC SEQUENCE (60 ELECTRONS) OF HIGH Z ELEMENTS COULD PROVIDE THE BASIS FOR A SOFT X-RAY LASER. THE ND-LIKEISOELECTRONIC SEQUENCE IS A NATURAL EXTENSION OF THE SUCCESSFUL NEON- AND NICKEL-LIKE SEQUENCE LASERS THAT WERE DEVELOPED AT THE LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY. GAIN MAY BE POSSIBLE AT APPROXIMATELY 70 FOR THE 5F-5D TRANSITION IN ND-LIKE URANIUM. THE POTENTIAL ADVANTAGE IS THAT A MEDIUM POWER ND:GLASS LASER IS SUFFICIENT TO CREATE ASOFT X-RAY LASER UNDER 100. THIS WOULD MEAN THAT SOFT X-RAY LASER RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTS USING A SOFT X-RAY LASER AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL WOULD NO LONGER BE CONFINED TO THE LARGE NATIONAL LABORATORIES OR LARGE UNIVERSITY RESEARCHLABORATORIES. IF SUCCESSFUL, COHERENT RADIATION AROUND 70-100 (177-124EV) WOULD BE AVAILABLE TO THE LARGER SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY FOR STUDIES IN PHOTOBIOLOGY, X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHY, MATERIALS RESEARCH, AND X-RAY LITHOGRAPHY.