Soft-x-ray lasing and saturation in nickellike silver at pump energies below 30 J

We demonstrate that careful optimization of main-pulse-prepulse time delay and target curvature permits lasing and saturation to be achieved in Ni-lik e collisionally excited ions at pump energies that are achievable with tabl etop systems. Saturation of the 13.9-nm, J = 0-1 line of Ag, which has a ga in-length product of 15.3, was obtained by use of a single prepulse pumping scheme and a pump energy of less than 30 J in 100 ps. (C) 1999 Optical Soc iety of America [S0740-3224(99)00910-8].