title: Low energy prepulse for 10 Hz operation of a soft-x-ray laser.
abstract: The influence on Nickel-like Molybdenum soft-x-ray laser performance and stability of a low energy laser prepulse arriving prior to the main laser pumping pulses is experimentally investigated. A promising regime for 10 Hz operation has been observed. A four times increase in soft-x-ray laser operation time with a same target surface is demonstrated. This soft-x-ray laser operation mode corresponds to an optimum delay between the prepulse and the main pulses and to a prepulse energy greater than 20 mJ. We also show that this regime is not associated with a weaker degradation of the target or any reduced ablation rate. Therefore the role of preplasma density gradient in this effect is discussed.
authors.affiliation: LASERIX, Univ. Paris-Sud, bat 210 campus d’Orsay, 91405 Orsay, France. jamil.habib@u-psud.fr
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Habib
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Guilbaud
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zielbauer
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zimmer
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pittman
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kazamias
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Montet
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: kuehl
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ros
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007834:Lasers; D014965:X-Rays