Stable and fully controlled long-time operation of a soft X-ray laser for user application experiments

Irradiation of user-supplied samples with pulsed 18.9 nm radiation originating from a molybdenum soft x-ray laser pumped in a double-pulse, single-beam (DGRIP) configuration is described. Stable operation at 10 Hz during up to 50,000 pulses is demonstrated with an average on-sample pulse energy of 200 nJ. The ability of the irradiation device to precisely deliver high photon doses with good spatial uniformity is confirmed. This constitutes to our knowledge the first demonstration of a laser-pumped soft x-ray laser as a stable and fully characterized irradiation source running automatically over exposure times of several hours.

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