<title>Picosecond excimer laser-plasma x-ray source for microscopy, biochemistry, and lithography</title>

Short-pulse, extreme-ultraviolet continuum emission from a table-top laser plasma light source

“…A table-top, high average power laser plasma x-ray source 29 was developed at RAL using a picosecond excimer laser system. This system demonstrated very high ͑11%͒ conversion efficiency from laser energy to 1 nm ͑Cu L shell͒ x-ray radiation by using a very high laser power density ͑ϳ10 15 W/cm 2 ) on target.…”

“…29 A 20 ns pump cycle in the two excimer lasers resulted in two 7 ps pulses, each having an average energy of 15 mJ, within each KrF laser cycle. A 1 m f /10 plano convex lens was used to focus laser light to an irradiance of ϳ10 13 W/cm 2 onto both continuously moving tape and rotating cylindrical targets in vacuo.…”

An ensemble of new techniques to study soft-X-ray-induced variations in cellular metabolism

“…Such laser radiation was focused onto the target with a f ϭ 9 cm focusing lens producing an intensity of the order of 5 ϫ10 15 W0cm 2 . The overall system is very similar to the one already described by Turcu et al 1994aTurcu et al , 1994b A relevant element for the success of the experiment was the availability of a computer driven robot for sample exposure and of a dose control system. The exposure robot was developed at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to irradiate mammal cells with Cu L-shell X-rays~Turcu et al, 1994aX-rays~Turcu et al, , 1994b!.…”

Gap junction communication dynamics and bystander effects from ultrasoft X-rays

“…Development of a laser plasmagenerated ultrasoft X-ray source began in the late 1980s (Turcu et al, 1990(Turcu et al, , 1994. The source uses a system of excimer lasers, which produces a train of picosecond pulses.…”

“…To investigate the effects that radiation has on the function of gap junctions in directly irradiated and bystander cells, we have combined pulsed-laser plasma-generated ultrasoft X-rays (Turcu et al, 1990(Turcu et al, , 1994, micropositioning technology and photobleaching of single dye-loaded cells. We define a dose -response relationship and the spatial extent of the responses to localised irradiation in cultured cell populations.…”