Atomic processes in X-ray laser interaction plasmas are investigated by using a collisional-radiative model. Population inversions on free-bound transitions can be produced by photoionization above a threshold of incident X-ray laser intensity and lead to stimulated free-bound emission (SFBE). Free-bound lasers pumped by intense X-ray lasers are proposed and their feasibility is investigated simply considering X-ray laser interaction plasmas.

Soft X-ray imaging detection is usually made by using 101–01, 101–07, or SA1 Kodak films. Recent progress in thinned CCD fabrication allows us now to replace films by thinned CCDs to detect UV soft X-ray light with an enhanced sensitivity. We developed a thinned CCD system, and to demonstrate its applicability to replace photographic films we tested it behind a broad spectral range soft X-ray transmission grating spectrometer and a soft X-ray Mo/Si multilayer mirror telescope. Soft X-ray spectra and soft X-ray pictures of laser-created plasma are presented using these instruments implemented with a thinned CCD readout.

Vertical dispersion variant of the double-crystal spectrograph is analyzed and its basic quantitative characteristics (luminosity, resolving power) are computed using ray tracing code. It is shown that geometric apparatus smearing is minimized due to high dispersion and spectral resolution may considerably exceed the single-crystal diffraction limit. Performing high-resolution spectral work, the efficiency of the double-crystal apparatus exceeds that of the flat single-crystal spectrograph. The usefulness of this method in laser plasma spectroscopy is demonstrated analyzing the detection of phosphorus He-like resonance line and its satellites.

The imaging spectrograph with spherical crystal and transmission grating have been used to obtain the high spectrally and spatially resolved images of plasma X-ray microsources (fast z-pinch) as well as of laser-produced plasma flares up to 5 mm in extent. The spectral resolution λ/Δλ = 2·104 have been achieved using a quartz spherical mirror with the curvature radius 500 mm. Using a transmission grating spectrometer, the spectral density of power about 105 W/A in the “water window” has been measured in experiments with a fast z-pinch large pulse storage facility.

Two methods of target technology for investigation of X-ray laser–plasma emission are presented. The first deals with steel and gold microcapillary targets. They are about 200 μm in inner diameter and about 500 μm in length. The second method deals with metal plus plastic targets of reduced and controlled density in the range of 1.6–8.1 g/cm3 for Cu + polyethylene (PE) and 1.6–7.6 g/cm3 for Fe + PE.

A modular cw CO2 transverse flow, self-sustained discharge-excited laser at an average output power of 1.2 kW was designed and built at the IFFM of the Polish Academy of Sciences for industrial applications. Performance characteristics of the laser measured for a stable resonator folded into different types of multipass configurations are reported and compared.

A construction and exploitation of a comparatively large I photodissociation laser system (Perun) is reported. This system was constructed in cooperation between the Institute of Physics of Czechoslovak Academy of Science in Prague and the Lebedev Institute of Physics of Soviet Academy of Science in Moscow. The laser produces subnanosecond pulses of maximum 50 J and 0·5 ns in duration. Although the pumping time by Xe flashlamps is long enough for an acoustic disturbance released in the active medium to introduce an optical inhomogeneity across the whole cross section of the laser tube, the radiation can be focused in a focal spot of a power density exceeding 1014 W/cm2, enough for meaningful laser target experiments both for a laser plasma production or a modification of solid surfaces. The repetition time of the shots is about 10 min.