Numerical studies on the properties of femtosecond laser plasma K alpha sources

One of the features of ultra high intensity (UHI) short pulse laser-matter interactions is the prospect of creating a cheap, compact source of hard X rays with femtosecond pulse duration. The properties of such K alpha source s are studied using analytical and numerical models of hot electron generat ion and subsequent transport in a range of materials (Reich et al., 2000). First, we find that there is an optimum laser intensity for K alpha generat ion from bulk targets, which scales as Z(4.4) Second, we show that efficien t hard X-ray pulses with durations below 100 fs can be generated at intensi ties of similar to 10(16) W/cm(2).