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Hot carrier-based energy conversion systems could double the efficiency of conventional solar energy technology or drive photochemical reactions that would not be possible using fully thermalized, ``cool'' carriers, but current strategies require expensive multi-junction architectures. Using an unprecedented combination of photoelectrochemical and in situ transient absorption spectroscopy measurements, we demonstrate ultrafast (, 6 pages, 3 figures main text; 6 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, 57 refs. appendices

High-energy ultrashort pulse optical lasers operating at high repetition rate are required to drive intense compact coherent soft X-ray sources, including soft X-ray lasers, for applications in nanoscience and nanotechnology, material studies, and high field science. This paper reviews two types of high-power solid-state laser systems developed at Colorado State University to pump compact, high repetition rate, and plasma-based soft X-ray lasers. One is a flashlamp-pumped, petawatt-class Ti:sapphire chirped-pulse amplification laser that generates 0.85 PW pulses of 30 fs duration at 3.3 Hz repetition rate. Using a fraction of the output energy from this laser, we have demonstrated gain-saturated, compact, repetitive lasers down to 6.85 nm in Ni-like Gd and have observed gain in shorter wavelength transitions, down to 5.85 nm in Ni-like Dy. The second type of pump laser is an all diode-pumped chirped-pulse amplification system based on cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG active mirror amplifiers that produces 1 J pulses of picosecond duration at 500 Hz repetition rate. These compact diode-pumped laser systems have enabled new advances in high-average-power tabletop soft X-ray lasers that include 100 Hz demonstrations at wavelengths ranging from 10.9 to 18.9 nm, as well long duration operation at these high repetition rates for periods up to one hour. These and other recent results that include the operation of an 18.9 nm laser Ni-like Mo laser at 400 Hz repetition rate open a path to compact kilohertz repetition rate soft X-ray lasers.

Two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy has grown in prominence, since its inception in the 1990s. With it’s ability to report on the structure and dynamics of chemical systems with femtosecond time resolution, 2D IR spectroscopy has provided insight into a vast number of chemical systems. 2D IR spectroscopy experiments have provided important insights into water dynamics, protein structure, and kinetics, and more recently 2D IR has been used to address questions in materials chemistry, disease states, and energy sciences. This review will present a brief overview of the principles behind 2D IR spectroscopy. The observables available in 2D IR spectra and methods to extract information regarding chemical structure and dynamics will be discussed. In addition, experimental systems will be discussed to highlight new advances in ultrafast technology that will impact new areas of research to be explored. Finally, this review will briefly discuss future directions for 2-D vibrational spectroscopy and innovations that are moving the field of ultrafast spectroscopy forward.

A major impediment limiting the widespread application of ionic liquids (ILs) is their high shear viscosity. Incorporation of a tricyanomethanide (TCM−) anion in ILs leads to low shear viscosity and improvement of several characteristics suitable for large scale applications. However, properties including interactions of TCM− with the local environment and dynamics of TCM− have not been thoroughly investigated. Herein, we have studied the ultrafast dynamics of TCM− in several imidazolium ILs using linear IR and two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy techniques. The spectral diffusion dynamics of the CN stretching modes of TCM− in all ILs exhibit a nonexponential behavior with a short time component of ∼2 ps and a long time component spanning ∼9 ps to 14 ps. The TCM− vibrational probe reports a significantly faster relaxation of ILs compared to those observed previously using linear vibrational probes, such as thiocyanate and selenocyanate. Our results indicate a rapid relaxation of the local ion-cage structure embedding the vibrational probe in the ILs. The faster relaxation suggests that the lifetime of the local ion-cage structure decreases in the presence of TCM− in the ILs. Linear IR spectroscopic results show that the hydrogen-bonding interaction between TCM− and imidazolium cations in ILs is much weaker. Shorter ion-cage lifetimes together with weaker hydrogen-bonding interactions account for the low shear viscosity of TCM− based ILs compared to commonly used ILs. In addition, this study demonstrates that TCM− can be used as a potential vibrational reporter to study the structure and dynamics of ILs and other molecular systems.

The manuscript posted describes the first use of 2D IR microscopy to spatially resolve chemical dynamics in a complex chemical environment. Full details of the 2D IR microscopy experiments, sample preparation, data analysis, and modeling are provided. The results reveal how chemical dynamics evolve across a room temperature ionic liquid microdroplet. In addition, this work demonstrates the power of 2D IR microscopy to quantitative information hidden by other chemical imaging approaches.

The development of coherent multidimensional microspectroscopy (CMDMS) is driven by a desire to investigate heterogenous samples and spatially resolve details about molecular structure and dynamics that are available using coherent multidimensional techniques (CMDS). However, incorporating traditional CMDS techniques into imaging modalities requires tackling obstacles including acquisition time, spatial resolution, and detection methods. Thus, this chapter reviews these challenges, the basics of microscopy and spatial resolution, and how different experimental setups implemented by the five research groups that have executed CMDMS approach these obstacles. In addition to a brief review of experimental set-ups, the main findings of each group are reviewed. Most of the current research is shown to be proof of concept, however with additional improvements valuable information could be gained about different biological and materials samples. In looking towards the future of the field, this chapter also reviews other methods for data reduction and detection methods that have been applied in CMDS experiments such as compressive sensing and fluorescence detection or fluorescence encoding methods to combat long acquisition times, IR detection limitations, and the diffraction limited spatial resolution inherent to the mid-IR.

The precision control of microfluidic technology was successfully interfaced with a 100 kHz two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectrometer to observe the sensitivity of the anion cyanate (OCN-) to the surrounding solvent environment in a high-throughput manner. Producing high-throughput 2D IR spectroscopy measurements allows us to observe the vibrational response of cyanate in mixed solvent environments. Changes in solvation environment around the cyanate ion yield frequency shifts from 2150 to 2165 cm-1 when moving from a pure dimethylformamide solvent environment to a pure methanol environment. 2D IR spectra were captured laterally across microfluidic devices tailored to produce a tunable gradient to observe the OCN- vibrational response to mixed solvent environments. These experiments reveal that there is no preferential solvation of cyanate in this system; instead, a more complex local solvent environment is observed.

We demonstrate the generation of 0.85 PW, 30 fs pulses at a repetition rate of 3.3 Hz from a Ti:Sapphire laser system. Ultra-high contrast second harmonic fs pulses at 400 nm were generated with >40% efficiency and focused to an intensity of 6.5×1021 W/cm2.

We demonstrated 0.85PW, 30fs pulses at a repetition rate of 3.3Hz from a Ti:Sapphire laser. Ultra-high contrast λ=400 nm fs pulses were generated with > 40% efficiency and focused to an intensity of 6.5×1021W/cm2.

Femtosecond laser pulses were used to heat dense matter, converting it into an extremely hot plasma. 52-times ionized gold was achieved as well as gigabar pressures, which can be exceeded only in the central hot spots of thermonuclear fusion plasmas.

We present a 100 kHz 2D IR spectrometer. The system utilizes a ytterbium all normal dispersion fiber oscillator as a common source for the pump and seed beams of a MgO:PPLN OPCPA. The 1030 nm OPCPA pump is generated by amplification of the oscillator in cryocooled Yb:YAG amplifiers, while the 1.68 μm seed is generated in a OPO pumped by the oscillator. The OPCPA outputs are used in a ZGP DFG stage to generate 4.65 μm pulses. A mid-IR pulse shaper delivers pulse pairs to a 2D IR spectrometer allowing for data collection at 100 kHz.

There is keen interest in generating intense, coherent, soft-X-ray beams for scientific and measurement applications1. Here, we report the demonstration of soft-X-ray lasers with essentially full spatial and temporal coherence operating at wavelengths below 20 nm, and in particular within the 13-nm spectral region, which is important for the manufacturing of computer chips using extreme uv lithography. Gain-saturated pulses were produced in dense laser-created plasmas by amplifying high-harmonic seed pulses in the 18.9-nm and 13.9-nm transitions of nickel-like molybdenum and silver ions, respectively. These results, obtained using an injection seeding technique that can also be applied to improve the temporal coherence of free-electron lasers, extend our ability to generate bright phase-coherent laser beams to significantly shorter wavelengths. Moreover, the experiments were conducted using a practical table-top laser2. These compact soft-X-ray lasers offer new scientific opportunities, such as high-resolution coherent imaging and phase-coherent probing of atomic and molecular systems, in small laboratory environments.

We have demonstrated the volumetric heating of near-solid density plasmas to keV temperatures using ultra-high contrast femtosecond laser pulses of only 0.5 J energy to irradiate arrays of vertically aligned nanowires (Purvis et al. Nat Photonics 7:796–780, 2013). Our x-ray spectra and particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations show extremely highly ionized plasma volumes several micrometers in depth are generated by irradiation of Au and Ni nanowire arrays with femtosecond laser pulses of relativistic intensities. Arrays of vertically aligned Ni nanowires with an average density of 12 % solid were ionized to the He-like stage. The He-like line emission from the nanowire target exceeds the intensity of the Ni Kα line at this irradiation intensity. Similarly near-solid density Au nanowire arrays were ionized to the Co-like (Au52+). This volumetric plasma heating approach creates a new laboratory plasma regime in which extreme plasma parameters can be accessed with table-top lasers. Scaling to higher laser intensities promises to create plasmas with temperatures and pressures similar to those in the center of the sun. The increased hydrodynamic-to-radiative lifetime ratio is responsible for a dramatic increase in the x-ray emission with respect to polished solid targets. As highly efficient X-ray emitters and sources of extreme plasma conditions, these plasmas could play a role in the development of new ultra-short pulse soft x-ray lasers.

While dynamics of polar solvation have been tabulated for a wide range of pure polar solvents, substantially less is known about the dynamic response of solvent mixtures. Here, results for polar solvation dynamics are presented for the nonassociating mixture of a dipolar solvent, acetonitrile, and a quadrupolar solvent, benzene. The solvation response observed is sensitive to the mixing of the pure solvents, affecting both the inertial and diffusive components of the solvation response function. Addition of acetonitrile to benzene increases the amplitude of the inertial response. At high benzene mole fractions, the diffusive relaxation reveals a slow component attributed to translational diffusion of the acetonitrile.

We demonstrate the generation of 0.85 PW, 30 fs laser pulses at a repetition rate of 3.3 Hz with a record average power of 85 W from a Ti:sapphire laser. The system is pumped by high-energy Nd:glass slab amplifiers frequency doubled in LiB3O5 (LBO). Ultrahigh-contrast λ=400 nm femtosecond pulses were generated in KH2PO4 (KDP) with >40% efficiency. An intensity of 6.5×1021 W/cm2 was obtained by frequency doubling 80% of the available Ti:sapphire energy and focusing the doubled light with an f/2 parabola. This laser will enable highly relativistic plasma experiments to be conducted at high repetition rate.

A diode-pumped cryogenic Yb:YAG CPA laser that produces 1J, 5ps pulses allowed for the first time the uninterrupted generation of 1.8x10^5 sub-20nm wavelength laser pulses with microjoule energy at 100Hz repetition rate on a table-top.

We have used a white light continuum generated with ultrashort laser pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser system as the radiation source for second-harmonic generation measurements. The white light continuum provides easily tuned radiation for experiments requiring a range of wavelengths. Despite the small coherence length of the radiation, parametric processes, such as second-harmonic generation, are possible with this source. In particular, surface second-harmonic generation using the white light continuum is reasonable because the extent of the interface is much smaller than the coherence length of the radiation. We demonstrate second-harmonic generation from a gold surface and show that surface second-harmonic generation using the white light continuum can be used to measure absorption spectroscopy of molecules adsorbed to surfaces via resonance enhancement of the surface second-harmonic signals.

Compact λ = 13.9 nm and λ = 18.9 nm lasers with record >0.1 mW average power were demonstrated using a 100 Hz repetition rate diode-pumped CPA laser. Successful scaling to λ = 10.9 nm is reported.

We demonstrate the operation of a gain-saturated table-top soft x-ray laser at 100 Hz repetition rate. The laser generates an average power of 0.15 mW at λ=18.9 nm, the highest laser power reported to date from a sub-20-nm wavelength compact source. Picosecond laser pulses of 1.5 μJ energy were produced at λ=18.9 nm by amplification in a Mo plasma created by tailoring the temporal intensity profile of single pump pulses with 1 J energy produced by a diode-pumped chirped pulse amplification Yb:YAG laser. Lasing was also obtained in the 13.9 nm line of Ni-like Ag. These results increase by an order of magnitude the repetition rate of plasma-based soft x-ray lasers opening the path to milliwatt average power table-top lasers at sub-20 nm wavelengths.

A high power, high repetition rate, Ti:Sa laser driver for the generation of table-top sub-10 nm soft X-ray lasers is discussed. It allowed lasing transition of Ni-like lanthanide ions at wavelengths down to 7.36 nm.

We have demonstrated the generation of bright soft x-ray laser pulses with record-high average power from compact plasma amplifiers excited by ultrafast solid state lasers. These lasers have numerous applications in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

We report the highest repetition rate table-top soft x-ray laser, 50Hz. Microjoule-level picosecond laser pulses were produced at λ=18.9nm by amplification in a molybdenum plasma generated by a 1 J diode-pumped chirped-pulse-amplification Yb-YAG laser.

We have demonstrated the efficient generation of sub-9-nm-wavelength picosecond laser pulses of microjoule energy at 1-Hz repetition rate with a tabletop laser. Gain-saturated lasing was obtained at λ=8.85 nm in nickel-like lanthanum ions excited by collisional electron-impact excitation in a precreated plasma column heated by a picosecond optical laser pulse of 4-J energy. Furthermore, isoelectronic scaling along the lanthanide series resulted in lasing at wavelengths as short as λ=7.36 nm. Simulations show that the collisionally broadened atomic transitions in these dense plasmas can support the amplification of subpicosecond soft-x-ray laser pulses.

(35 Word Limit) We have developed a high power Ti:Sa laser driver for pumping sub-10 nm table-top soft X-ray lasers. The system is based on a four stage CPA design in which the final amplification stages are pumped by the frequency doubled output of a slab laser system operating at 1053 nm. Output energies of 13.5 J have been obtained pre-compression, allowing gain-saturated lasing in sub-10 laser lines at 1 Hz repetition rate.

We report the demonstration of an 18.9nm soft x-ray laser pumped by a compact; all diode pumped chirped pulse amplification laser system producing 1J, 8.5ps pulses at 10Hz repetition rate.

The first soft x-ray laser pumped by laser diodes is reported. Lasing was achieved on the 18.9 nm line of nickel-like molybdenum pumping with a Yb:YAG chirped pulse amplification system with 1 J energy.

We have demonstrated a compact diode-pumped chirped pulse amplification laser based on cryogenically-cooled Yb:YAG that produces 1 J, 8.5 ps duration pulses at 10 Hz repetition rate.

We describe recent advances in the demonstration of table-top full field microscopes that use soft x-ray lasers for illumination. We have achieved wavelength resolution and single shot exposure operation with a very compact 46.9 nm microscope based on a desk-top size capillary discharge laser. This λ=46.9 nm microscope has been used to captured full field images of a variety of nanostructure systems and surfaces. In a separate development we have demonstrated a zone plate microscope that uses λ=13.2 nm laser illumination to image absorption defects in a extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) mask in the same geometry used in a 4x demagnification EUVL stepper. Characterization of the microscope's transfer function shows it can resolve 55 nm half period patterns. With these capabilities, the λ=13.2 nm microscope is well suited for evaluation of pattern and defect printability of EUVL masks for the 22 nm node.

We demonstrate the generation of an intense soft-x-ray-laser beam by saturated amplification of high harmonic seed pulses in a dense transient collisional soft-x-ray-laser plasma amplifier created by heating a titanium target. Amplification in the 32.6 nm line of Ne-like Ti generates laser pulses of subpicosecond duration that are measured to approach full spatial coherence. The peak spectral brightness is estimated to be {approx}2x10{sup 26} photons/(s mm{sup 2} mrad{sup 2} 0.01% bandwidth). The scheme is scalable to produce extremely bright lasers at very short wavelengths with full temporal and spatial coherence.

We have acquired images with a spatial resolution better than 38 nm by using a tabletop microscope that combines 13 nm wavelength light from a high-brightness tabletop laser and Fresnel zone plate optics. These results open a gateway to the development of compact and widely available extreme-ultraviolet imaging tools capable of inspecting samples in a variety of environments with a 15-20 nm spatial resolution and a picosecond time resolution.

We have acquired images with sub-38 nm spatial resolution using a tabletop extreme ultraviolet (EUV) imaging system operating at a wavelength of 13.2 nm, which is within the bandwidth of Mo/Si lithography mirrors This zone plate-based, full-field microscope has the power to render images in only several seconds with up to a 10,000 μm 2 field of view. The ability to acquire such high-resolution images using a compact EUV plasma laser source opens many possibilities for nanotechnology, including in-house actinic inspection of EUV lithography mask blanks.

Images with sub-38nm spatial resolution were obtained with a tabletop microscope based on a high repetition rate tabletop 13nm wavelength laser and zone-plate optics.

New high repetition rate table-top soft X-ray lasers allow the generation of intense coherent soft X-ray beams. The high peak spectral brightness of these lasers in the 25-100 eV photon energy region enable new applications

We report gain-saturated operation of a 13.2 nm table-top laser in Ni-like Cd at a 5 Hz repetition rate. A gain-length product G x L = 17.6 was obtained by heating a precreated plasma with 8 ps duration Ti:sapphire laser pulses with an energy of only 1 J impinging at a grazing angle of 23 degrees. With an average power of approximately 1 muW [corrected] this laser is an attractive coherent source for at-wavelength metrology of extreme UV lithography optics and other applications.

The translational and rotational motions of water and dimethyl sulfoxide, [DMSO, (CH(3))(2)SO] have been investigated using quasi-elastic neutron scattering. Water-DMSO mixtures at five DMSO mole fractions, chi(DMSO), ranging from 0 to 0.75, were measured. Hydrogen-deuterium substitution was used to extract independently the water proton dynamics (d-DMSO-H(2)O), the DMSO methyl proton dynamics (h-DMSO-D(2)O) and to obtain background corrections (d-DMSO-D(2)O). The translational diffusion of water slows down significantly compared to bulk water at all chi(DMSO)0. The rotational time constant for water exhibits a maximum at chi(DMSO)=0.33 that corresponds to the observed maximum of the viscosity of the mixture. Data for DMSO can be analyzed in terms of a relatively slow tumbling of the molecule about its center-of-mass in conjunction with random translational diffusion. The rotational time constant for this motion exhibits some dependence on chi(DMSO), while the translational diffusion constant shows no clear variation for chi(DMSO)0. The results presented reinforce the idea that due to the stronger associative nature of DMSO, DMSO-water aggregates are formed over the whole composition range, disturbing the tetrahedral natural arrangement of the water molecules. As a consequence adding DMSO to water causes a drastic slowing down of the dynamics of the water molecule, and vice versa.

We report the generation and characterization of plasma waveguides in a highly ionized Ar plasma created by a fast capillary discharge. Their results are of interest for the efficient longitudinal laser excitation of collisional soft x-ray lasers. A discharge-driven hydrodynamic compression guides progressively lower order modes through a plasma with increasing density and degree of ionization. The mode structure and guiding properties were investigated using near and far field imaging, and transmission measurements. The lowest order mode (FWHM diameter ~ 50 um) is guided with an energy transmission of ~ 75% over a 5.5 cm long plasma a fraction of a ns before the discharge plasma column reaches the conditions for lasing in Ne-like Ar. The rapid expansion of the highly ionized plasma column after the pinch forms a significantly more leaky and absorbent waveguide.

We have demonstrated the guiding of laser pulses with peak intensities up to $2.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{17}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ in a 5.5 cm long plasma column containing highly charged Ar ions generated by a fast capillary discharge. A rapid discharge-driven hydrodynamic compression guides progressively lower order modes through a plasma with increasing density and degree of ionization, until the guide collapses on axis. The lowest order mode (FWHM $\ensuremath{\sim}50\text{ }\text{ }\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$) is guided with 75% transmission efficiency shortly before the plasma reaches the conditions for lasing in Ne-like Ar. The subsequent rapid plasma expansion forms a significantly leakier and more absorbent guide.

This paper gives an overview of recent soft x-ray laser research at Colorado State University. Progress related to capillary discharge source development includes the observation of emission from the 13.2-nm laser line of Nickel-like Cd in a plasma column generated by a high power capillary discharge. This result suggests it might be possible to extend capillary discharge lasers to significantly shorter wavelengths. In another approach to the generation of coherent soft x-ray radiation we analyzed the possibility of amplifying high order harmonic pulses in a discharge-pumped amplifier. The study of the already well- characterized 46.9-nm Ne-like Ar laser was extended with new spatial coherence and laser wavefront measurements, in work conducted in collaboration with U. California Berkeley and U. of Paris-Sud groups. In the field of applications, we have extended our previous results of plasma interferometry with a tabletop laser to plasma densities up to 0.9 x 1021 cm-3. Sequences of soft x-ray laser interferograms of plasmas generated by a Nd-YAG laser at intensities between 1 x 1011 W cm-2 and 7 x 1012 W cm-2 show the development and evolution of a concave electron density profile. The detailed mapping of this phenomenon with soft x-ray interferometry exemplifies the usefulness of compact soft x-ray lasers in increasing the understanding of high density plasmas.© (2001) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

We have measured the absorption spectrum of the laser dye IR125 (also known as indocyanine green) at the water/air interface using resonant enhanced surface second harmonic generation. The spectra of the dye molecules at the interface are extremely sensitive to the bulk concentration. All the surface spectra reflect aggregation of the dye at the interface, even at the smallest concentrations detectable, below 1 (mu) M. Resonant enhanced second harmonic generation appears to be a good technique for measuring spectra at liquid interfaces.

We have demonstrated an all-diode-pumped Yb:YAG chirped pulse amplification laser that produces 100 mJ pulses of 5 ps duration at 100 Hz repetition rate. The compact laser system combines a room-temperature Yb:YAG regenerative amplifier for increased bandwidth and a cryogenically cooled Yb:YAG four-pass amplifier for improved heat dissipation and increased efficiency. The optical efficiency of this amplifier is higher than that of other diode-pumped systems of comparable energy.

We have realized the first demonstration of a table-top aerial imaging microscope capable of characterizing pattern and defect printability in extreme ultraviolet lithography masks. The microscope combines the output of a 13.2 nm wavelength, table-top, plasma-based, EUV laser with zone plate optics to mimic the imaging conditions of an EUV lithographic stepper. We have characterized the illumination of the system and performed line-edge roughness measurements on an EUVL mask. The results open a path for the development of a compact aerial imaging microscope for high-volume manufacturing.

We have demonstrated repetitive operation of a table-top lambda=13.9 nm Ni-like Ag soft-x-ray laser that generates laser pulses with 10 microJ energy. The soft-x-ray laser is enabled by a Ti:sapphire laser pumped by high-repetition-rate frequency-doubled high-energy Nd:glass slab amplifiers. Soft-x-ray laser operation at 2.5 Hz repetition rate resulted in 20 microwatt average power.

We report saturated operation of an 18.9-nm laser at 5-Hz repetition rate. An amplification with a gain-length product GL of 15.5 is obtained in the 4d 1S0-4p 1P1 laser line of Ni-like Mo in plasmas heated at grazing incidence with approximately 1-J pulses of 8.1-ps duration from a tabletop laser system. Lasing is obtained over a broad range of time delays and pumping conditions. We also measure a GL of 13.5 in the 22.6-nm transition of the same ion. The results are of interest for numerous applications requiring high-repetition-rate lasers at wavelengths below 20 nm.

We have demonstrated broad bandwidth large area (229 mm × 114 mm) multilayer dielectric diffraction gratings for the efficient compression of high energy 800 nm laser pulses at high average power. The gratings are etched in the top layers of an aperiodic (Nb 0.5 Ta 0.5 ) 2 O 5 -SiO 2 multilayer coating deposited by ion beam sputtering. The mean efficiency of the grating across the area is better than 97% at the center wavelength and remains above 96% at wavelengths between 820 nm and 780 nm. The gratings were used to compress 5.5 J pulses from a Ti:sapphire laser with an efficiency above 80 percent Fil: Martz, D. H.. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos Fil: Nguyen, H. T.. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Estados Unidos Fil: Patel, D.. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos Fil: Britten, J. A.. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Estados Unidos Fil: Alessi, D.. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos Fil: Krous, E.. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos Fil: Wang, Y.. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos Fil: Larotonda, Miguel Antonio. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo Estratégico para la Defensa. Ministerio de Defensa. Unidad de Investigación y Desarrollo Estratégico para la Defensa; Argentina Fil: George, J.. Veeco Process Equipment Inc; Estados Unidos Fil: Knollenberg, B.. Veeco Process Equipment Inc; Estados Unidos Fil: Luther, B. M.. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos Fil: Rocca, J. J.. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos Fil: Menoni, C. S.. Colorado State University; Estados Unidos

We report the first at-wavelength line edge roughness measurements of patterned EUV lithography masks realized using a table-top aerial imaging system based on a table-top λ=13.2 laser.

During recent months we have continued investigations of many different aspects of x-ray lasers to characterize and improve the source and applications. This work has included temporal characterization of existing laser-heated x-ray lasers under a wide range of pumping conditions. We have also looked into more details at different applications of x-ray lasers among which was the interferometry of laser-produced and capillary discharge plasmas in several irradiation conditions for different target Z materials. The reduction of pump energy remains the most important for the generation of new compact x-ray lasers. Numerical studies show that there are some ways to improve several of the key parameters of x-ray lasers specifically repetition rates and efficiency.