Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
Recent advances in X-ray laser research have significantly increased the possibilities for X-ray laser applications. In this paper, we report the first demonstration of pointing and focusing of a soft X-ray laser beam. A LLNL selenium soft X-ray laser at 206 and 209 Å was used in these experiments. Two state of the art 76 mm diameter multilayer mirrors were used to collimate and refocus the laser onto a set of cross hairs which were constructed from 100 μm diameter wires. The cross hairs were located 4.6 m from the X-ray laser source. Results show that the laser can be pointed to within 75 μrad and focused to a 235 μm diameter spot. It is expected that eventually spot sizes near 100 μm and flux levels of 100J/cm2 at X-ray irradiances up to 1012W/cm2 can be provided to a remote application, using a similar beam relaying system.