X-ray emission from a liquid curtain jet when irradiated by femtosecond laser pulses

Abstract

Laser-based sources of ionizing radiation have attracted considerable attention in the last years for their broad potential applications. However, the stability and robustness of such sources are still issues that need to be addressed. Aiming to solve such problems, we propose a source that uses a liquid jet—rather than a solid—as a target for the production of X-rays. Liquid jets offer always a clean surface for every laser shot which represent a clear advantage over solids. In this work, we present an experimental characterization of the X-ray emission of such targets, and study the efficiency of the process when two temporally delayed pulses are used. According to the obtained results, the X-ray yield is comparable with commonly used targets.