ENHANCEMENT OF X-RAY LASING DUE TO WAVE-FRONT CORRECTION OF LINE-FOCUSING OPTICS WITH A LARGE-APERTURE DEFORMABLE MIRROR

Intense x-ray laser radiation at 7.92 nm in nickel-like neodymium has been achieved by improving the line-focusing pattern using a large-ape rture deformable mirror. A deformable mirror of 40 cm diameter with he xagonally arranged 37 mechanical actuators ha been developed. The wave front aberration due to a cylindrical lens used for line focusing has been corrected with the deformable mirror to produce a line-focusing p attern of uniform narrow width and uniform intensity distribution. The intensity of the x-ray laser beam has increased six times due to the improvement of the line-focusing pattern. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.