Experimental and diffractive modeling methods for the characterization of soft x-ray emitting laser-produced plasma morphology

Abstract In this study, we report advances in experimental imaging and diffraction modeling methods to measure and accurately infer laser-produced plasma (LPP) emission spatial dimensions as small as 5 µ m in the soft x-ray (SXR) region between 1–3 nm. Small-scale SXR emission volumes were generated from the irradiation of molybdenum with a high peak power Nd:YAG laser. Computational fitting methods coupled with direct diffraction models enabled precise measurement of the plasma size by removing blurring inherent to the imaging system. The techniques demonstrated here can be applied to research in determining the SXR emission size of LPPs, which is essential for calculating LPP source radiance; this is a key parameter in imaging, spectroscopy and patterning applications where LPP SXR emission is of significant utility and interest.