The production of ultra-thin carbon fibres for use as targets in laser produced plasma studies

Thin fibres (<or=2 mu m diameter) suitable as targets for laser produced plasma experiments have been successfully produced by the etching of commercial carbon fibres (typically approximately 10 mu m diameter) in NO2 gas and air environments. Electron microscope examination of the reduced fibres shows that the etching is quite uniform around each individual fibre diameter and along the fibre lengths in both techniques.