Debris-free pulsed xenon-jet soft X-ray radiation source driven by Nd-laser radiation

A 'clean' (debris-free) pulsed soft X-ray radiation source was realised. The source is excited by the nanosecond pulses of a solid-state laser in a pulsed xenon gas jet (gas cloud). The source images are obtained at a wavelength of 180 Å using a focusing X-ray multilayer mirror. The spectra of the source are recorded in the 125 — 250 Å range using a stigmatic spectrograph comprising a recently developed broadband aperiodic multilayer mirror and a large-aperture transmission diffraction grating. The yield of soft X-rays was determined employing a fast-response absolutely calibrated AXUV-5 X-ray photodiode.