The scaling of Ne-like x-ray laser schemes to short wavelength

The driver and target parameters required to extend the successful results from an exploding foil Ne-like-Se soft x-ray laser at 206 Å towards wavelengths of 40 Å are investigated. The power requirements are found to scale as λ−4, which is quite costly. The principal constraint is the refraction of the x-ray laser beam in these high density, single pass, exploding foil targets. Correcting mirrors or nonrefracting target designs could reduce this costly scaling.