Applications of X-ray lasers

Summary form only given. Contact, transmission, and reflection X-ray laser microscopes have been constructed and are being used for biological microstructure studies. Two-dimensional images are being produced with sub-1000/spl Aring/ resolution. Efforts to improve the resolution and produce three-dimensional images are underway. X-ray lasers are also being used in moire deflectrometry experiments designed to measure electron density gradients in laser plasmas at densities near or above critical. An X-ray laser based interferometer is being designed for measuring two-dimensional electron density profiles in laser plasmas. In materials sciences, X-ray laser based experiments designed to study cluster formation are being developed. All of these applications exploit the unique short pulse, extremely high brightness output of the X-ray laser.