Capillary discharge experiment for collisional excitation soft X-ray laser

The realization of a capillary discharge soft X-ray source, for soft x ray laser generation by high temperature (> 100 eV) plasma column excitation in small diameter (4 mm) ceramic capillary, is reported. Radiation at 46.9 nm, produced by a very fast high voltage pulse (∼50 ns, 300 kV) in Neon-like argon, according to a technique initiated by J.J.Rocca et al., has been investigated by multilayer mirrors. Evidence is given for Z-pinch in the plasma column at about 40 kA, with associated X-ray generation. Application of this table-top X-ray source have been considered in different fields as X-ray microscopy and lithography.