Characterization of pure and mixed Ar, Kr and Xe gas jets generated by different nozzles and a study of X-ray radiation yields after interaction with a sub-ps laser pulse.

Gas jets accelerated through a linear supersonic and a conical nozzle, comprising a monomer/cluster mix, were characterized at UNR using a Mach-Zehnder type interferometer and Rayleigh scattering. A comparison of the two nozzle types is presented, showing that the linear nozzle produces gas jets of an order of magnitude denser than the conical nozzle. The linear gas jets of Ar, Kr, and Xe as well as triple mixtures with different percentages of each of the aforementioned gases were characterized. The densest gas jets used Ar as the target gas, while the least dense jets came from Kr. Cluster radii of the pure gases were measured, and Xe gas jets were found to produce the largest gas clusters. A study of X-ray generation by gas jet-laser plasma was performed at the UNR Leopard laser (1.057 μm, 350 fs, ∼1019 W/cm2) on the linear nozzle. The gas jets were irradiated with a high-intensity sub-ps laser pulse. An absolute X-ray output of the laser-gas jet interactions measured by the calibrated PCDs is presented and show that triple mixtures of Xe, Kr, and Ar each exhibited a higher X-ray yield compared to the pure gases. A strong anisotropy of X-ray radiation with respect to laser beam polarization direction is observed in all the gas jets. In fact, this anisotropy is different in three spectral regions (>1.4, 3.5 and 9 keV). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]