Novel laser line focus geometry applied to X-ray lasers

Abstract Producing a long narrow plasma column for X-ray laser studies requires focussing a laser beam into a line focus. Uniformity of intensity along the line is an important consideration. An array of wedges was used in conjunction with a cylindrical lens to provide averaging over many segments of the laser beam, resulting in a more uniform intensity distribution along the line focus. X-ray and infrared images of the resulting line plasmas are shown, to demonstrate the smoothing capability of the wedge array.