Generation of thermal x-ray radiation in high-Z cavities using high-power glass laser beam

Abstract

Thermal x-ray radiation was generated and confined inside a spherical gold cavity of 1.2 mm diameter that was heated by a 50 J/1 ns laser pulse at 1.053 μm wavelength. The laser intensity on the inner surface of the cavity was ~5x1013 W/cm2. The x-ray spectra recorded on high sensitivity x-ray film using a transmission grating spectrometer (TGS) positioned normal to the laser beam direction were analyzed to obtain the radiation temperature of the cavity. The unfolded x-ray spectra from the cavity have most of the emission between 15 - 60 Å with peak emission at 20 - 35 Å. The Planckian spectral fit to the x-ray spectra suggests a peak blackbody temperature of 90 eV inside the cavity.