ULTRAHIGH POWER COMPRESSION FOR X-RAY AMPLIFICATION - MULTIPHOTON CLUSTER EXCITATION COMBINED WITH NONLINEAR CHANNELED PROPAGATION

The ability to apply power densities controllably at or above vigorous thermonuclear levels (>10(19) W cm(-3)) in materials is the basic iss ue for achieving efficient amplification of x-rays. Recent experimenta l and theoretical findings concerning (i) the multiphoton production o f x-rays from clusters and (ii) high-intensity modes of channelled pro pagation in plasmas indicate an entirely new method for producing the conditions necessary for strong amplification in the multi-kV range. T hese two new non-linear phenomena are being united to produce and cont rol the imperative power compression; the multiphoton mechanism serves to establish the condition locally while the confined propagation pro vides the required spatial organization. The present work, which exper imentally demonstrates the first combined expression of these two comp lex non-linear processes through direct x-ray imaging of Xe(M) emissio n (similar to 1 keV) in stable self-trapped channels, (alpha) reveals the exceptional compatibility of their mutual scaling for realizing th e necessary power density, (beta) provides confirming evidence for the action of a superstrong coherent multi-electron intense-field interac tion in the x-ray generation from the Xe clusters, and (gamma) furnish es new detailed information on the dynamics of the radial intensity di stributions associated with the channelled propagation. The resulting knowledge of the scaling relations underlying these phenomena enables the optimum conditions for amplification to be specified up to a quant um energy of similar to 5 keV. The harmonious use of these new non-lin ear processes is expected to lead to an advanced generation of extraor dinarily bright x-ray sources in the multi-kV region having a peak bri ghtness of similar to 10(31)-10(33) gamma s(-1) (mrad)(-2) (mm)(-2) (0 .1% BW)(-1), a level sufficient for biological holographic imaging cap able of providing a high resolution visualization of the molecular ana tomy of cells, tissues and organisms in the natural state.