The construction of short pulse (<200 fs) tunable X-ray
laser sources based on the X-ray free electron laser (XFEL)
concept will be a watershed for plasma-based and warm dense
matter research. These new fourth generation light sources will
have extremely high fields and short wavelengths (∼0.1 nm)
with peak spectral brightnesses 1010 greater than
third generation sources. Further, the high intensity upgrade
of the GSI accelerator facilities will lead to specific energy
depositions up to 200 kJ/g and temperatures between 1 and
10 eV at almost solid-state densities, enabling interesting
experiments in the regime of nonideal plasmas, such as the
evolution of intense ion beams in the interior of a Jovian planet.
Below we discuss several applications: the creation of warm dense
matter (WDM) research, probing of near solid density plasmas, and
laser–plasma spectroscopy of ions in plasmas. The study of
dense plasmas has been severely hampered by the fact that laser-based
methods have been unavailable and these new fourth generation sources
will remove these restrictions.
A portable X-pinch design for x-ray diagnostics of warm dense matter