Explosive supersaturated amplification on 3d/spl rarr/2p Xe(L) hollow atom transitions at /spl lambda//spl sim/2.9 /spl Aring/

The Xe(L) system at/spl lambda//spl sim/2.9 /spl Aring/ exhibits all of the canonical attributes of a saturated amplifier. One clear manifestation of the saturation is the recording of high spectrally resolved x-ray yields that cause gross structural damage to material in the film plane of the spectrometer. The behavior of the amplifier can be best described as a system that undergoes explosive supersaturated amplification. The source of this exceptionally strong amplification can be traced to the dynamically enhanced radiative response of the excited Xe hollow atom states located in the clusters that are mode-coupled to the plasma waveguide forming the amplifying channel.