During the academic semesters the plasma physics department hosts seminars on Tuesday at 2:30 pm.
If you have questions or want to suggest a speaker/topic, please contact Prof. Olga Rosmej or Dr. Paul Neumayer.

Plasmaphysik Seminar

X-Ray Lasers at University of Bern

by Prof. Jürg Balmer (University of Bern)

Europe/Berlin
Seminarraum Theorie (GSI Darmstadt)

Seminarraum Theorie

GSI Darmstadt

Description
After a brief review of the history of (plasma-based) X-ray laser development, this talk will describe recent progress achieved in X-ray laser research at the Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) of the University of Bern. As opposed to free-electron lasers (FEL’s), laser-plasma based X-ray lasers are exploiting true stimulated emission between two discrete atomic levels. Using the 20-TW Nd:glass CPA (chirped-pulse amplification) laser system in operation at IAP, saturated or near-saturated soft-x-ray lasing has been demonstrated on the 4d  4p, J = 0-1 lines of the nickel-like ions of elements ranging from molybdenum (Mo, Z=42) to samarium (Sm, Z=62) at wavelengths ranging from 18.9 down to 7.36 nm, with weak lasing observed at 6.85 nm. This was achieved with driver pulse energies of ~10 J and a pulse duration of 1.5 ps. Crucial to these results was the implementation of the prepulse and grazing-incidence (GRIP) techniques combined with travelling-wave excitation (TWE).