Transient inversion soft X-ray lasers

The collisionally excited transient inversion scheme is shown to produce exceptionally high gain coefficients and gain-length products. Data are presented for the Ne-like titanium and germanium and Ni-like silver X-ray lasers (XRL's) pumped using a combination of nanosecond and picosecond duration laser pulses. This method leads to a dramatic reduction of the required pump energy and makes down-sizing of XRL's possible, an important prerequisite if they are to become commonly used tools in the long-term.