Cluster and aerosol targets, produced using a gas puff approach, for laser-matter interaction experiments

In this work, we present a novel construction of two experimental devices dedicated to producing laser-matter interaction targets for laser-produced plasma experiments and some results of first experiments concerning target characterization and interaction of developed targets with femtosecond pulses. Both devices are being developed in the Institute of Optoelectronics as a result of research in laser-plasma experiments based on pulsed gas targets. The first device, pulsed aerosol source, based on gas puff aerosol target formed in a vacuum, is a combination of pulsed gas target and ultrasonic generation of an aerosol from liquids. Production of aerosol in our devices is being done directly in the vacuum chamber, without using high gas pressure, supersonic nozzles or any heating elements. Depending on the liquid used, the parameters of the aerosol target can be easily changed. The second device, gas cluster target, is based on our previous construction - double stream gas puff target and the effect of pre-cooling the target gases. In this case, we are able to produce double stream gas-cluster target from atomic and molecular gases. Presented experimental devices can be used for producing new, highly efficient laser plasma sources of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and soft X-ray (SXR) radiation and also for EUV/SXR spectroscopy experiments.