X-ray laser development at Advanced Photon Research Center

Overall activity at the Advanced Photon Research Center is reviewed, with emphasis on x-ray laser program. A 15-TW Nd:glass CPA laser has been developed for x-ray laser experiments. In the preliminary experiments on the transient collisional excitation x-ray laser, a gain of 14 cm-1 has been obtained at 11.9 nm with the Ni-like Sn ions by a short (1-ps) prepulse irradition. Approaches toward improving x-ray laser coherence by high-harmonics amplification and extending to shorter wavelengths by using thin foil targets are described