Table-top EUV continuum light source

Work in recent years on the development of a convenient "table-top" source of continuum radiation in the XUV and VUV from 4 to 200 nm is summarized. It was found that laser-produced plasmas on targets of high atomic number (
62 \leq Z \leq 74
) emitted apparently line-free continua over very substantial spectral regions in the XUV and VUV. The continua are very intense, reproducible, and relatively insensitive to ambient pressure. The effective absence of line emission can be explained on the basis of the electron configurations of the ionized species responsible for the emission. A high repetition rate modular version of the source is described. Applications and advantages of the light source are presented.