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Modeling of the transient nickellike silver x-ray laser

Jaroslav Kuba*
Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Brehova 7, 115 19 Prague 1, Czech Republic, and Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Atomique et Ionique, Batiment 350, Universite Paris XI, 91405 Orsay, France

Raymond F. Smith,* Djamel Benredjem, and Clary Moller

Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Atomique et Ionique, Batiment 350, Universite Paris XI, 91405 Orsay, France

Lee Upcraft and Robert King

Department of Physics, University of York, Heslington, YO10 6DD, York, UK

Annie Klisnick
Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Atomique et Ionique, Batiment 350, Universite Paris XI, 91405 Orsay, France

Ladislav Drska
Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Brehova 7, 115 19 Prague 1, Czech Republic

Geoff J. Pert
Department of Physics, University of York, Heslington, YO10 6DD, York, UK

Jean-Claude Gauthier
Laboratoire pour lUtilisation des Lasers Intenses, Unite Mixte de Recherche 7605, 3705 Centre National de la ` Recherche Scientique/Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique/Universite Paris VI, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France Received April 19, 2002; revised manuscript received September 4, 2002 Recent high-temporal-resolution nickellike x-ray laser experiments have yielded important insights into the output characteristics of picosecond-pumped x-ray lasers. However, current experimental observations do not fully explain the plasma dynamics, which is critical to gain generation within the x-ray laser medium. A numerical study of the nickellike silver x-ray laser has therefore been undertaken to complement our experimental results in an attempt to further our understanding of the processes at work in yielding the observed x-ray laser output. High gain coefcients existing with picosecond lifetimes are predicted, which is consistent with the short x-ray laser durations experimentally observed. The late onset of the continuum emission relative to the temporal peak of the x-ray laser output is explained as a sign of high electron density evolution near the target surface. 2003 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 140.7240, 320.5390, 350.5400, 020.1670

1. INTRODUCTION
Collisional, laser-pumped x-ray lasers (XRLs) operate in single- or double-pass, high-gain ( 10 cm 1), ampliedspontaneous-emission mode. The gain region is created in an extended plasma column that is produced by interaction of one or more strong pump laser pulse(s) with a solid target. Population inversion is achieved by collisional excitation of the lasing ions with free electrons. Standard quasi-steady-state XRLs pumped by a relatively long laser pulse (of 70600-ps duration) were rst demonstrated as early as 1985.1 Today they routinely reach a saturated gainlength product of 15 with a pump
0740-3224/2003/010208-07$15.00

energy of typically 1001000 J.29 In recent years a combined experimental and theoretical approach has yielded insight into laserplasma coupling, refraction, and atomic processes that inuence the gain. This has led to the use of a low-energy prepulse preceding the main pulse by a few nanoseconds that preforms the plasma.37 Saturation was hence achieved on a host of soft-x-ray lasing lines in the 5.860-nm range. In the quasi-steady-state population-inversion regime the measured XRL output durations are typically of 4050 ps for a 100-ps pump pulse9 and of 80 ps for a 600-ps pump pulse.3 The pump energy requirement has recently been dra 2003 Optical Society of America

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matically reduced to a few joules when the development of chirped-pulse amplication (CPA) laser technology enabled the testing of the transient collisional excitation pumping scheme. This scheme was proposed as early as 198910 and investigated theoretically by several authors.1113 The rst experimental demonstration of transient gain was achieved in 1995 in neonlike titanium14 with saturation reported in the same element in 1998.15 The shortest XRL pulse duration observed until now was recently demonstrated with a transient scheme in the nickellike 4d 4p silver transition at 13.9 nm.16,17 Its unique properties make the transient XRL a promising tool for applications. The transient pumping scheme consists of target irradiation by two consecutive laser pulses. The initial longduration, low-intensity pulse creates a plasma containing a large population of the desired ion species, i.e., nickellike, neonlike, or possibly others. The second subpicosecond high-intensity laser pulse heats the preformed plasma and creates a transient inversion of population through collisional electronion excitation. Modeling suggests that a large population inversion (with gains of hundreds of cm 1) is generated before ionization can occur. High gains are expected in the period before collisional redistribution of the excited-states populations takes place.1821 Numerical simulations performed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory19 show that in the transient collisional excitation scheme the population inversion between the lasing levels is extinguished by over-ionization of the gain medium, a behavior that is also suggested by recent experimental observations16,17 in a nickellike silver transient XRL. In this paper we present the results of our numerical modeling aimed at giving insight into the gain dynamics of this laser at 13.9 nm. Modeling is based on the EHYBRID numerical code developed by G. J. Pert22 The model case studied in the paper will be the experiment carried out in 2000 at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL).16,17 The structure of the paper is the following. In Section 2 we will briey recall the experimental conditions to be simulated, along with the main experimental results obtained. Section 3 is devoted to the model used and code description; in Section 4 we will discuss the results of our simulations.

2. TIME-RESOLVED EXPERIMENT
In the experiment at RAL a fast, soft-x-ray streak camera with a resolution as high as 1.9 ps was used to analyze the output of the nickellike silver J 0 1 4d 4p lasing line at 13.9 nm.16,17 Two beamlines from the Ndglass Vulcan laser at 1.06 m were used to irradiate a 10mm-long at silver slab target in the RAL standard linefocus geometry.23 A 300-ps prepulse typically delivered 10 J on target into a 21 0.12-mm line focus with intensities of 2 1012 W/cm2 . This pulse generates a plasma which, after a controlled delay, is strongly heated to optimum lasing conditions by a 1.3-ps CPA pulse in a 19 0.08-mm line focus. Because of the previously inferred24,25 short gain durations ( 10 ps) relative to the transit time of the x-ray photons through the gain me-

dium ( 30 ps), it was necessary to implement travelingwave-irradiation pumping.2325 It was observed that the XRL emission peaked at 5 mrad off-axis for a range of pumping conditions. Through integration of the signal recorded on a CCD, the optimum pumping conditions were estimated to be 4.3 J/cm (1.2 1012 W/cm2 ) in the 300-ps preforming pulse and 11.8 J/cm (1.1 1015 W/cm2 ) in the CPA pulse with a temporal peak-topeak delay of 200 ps between the pulses. Here optimum refers to the maximum energy yield within the XRL pulse. For the time-resolved shots an AXIS-Photonique XUV streak camera26 equipped with a potassium bromide photocathode was positioned at the focal plane of a at-eld spectrometer to give the temporal resolution of the XRL emission. In our setup the 1 15-mm photocathode was placed parallel to the direction of spectral dispersion and at an angular position off-axis corresponding to the peak of the XRL output. The streak camera thus gave wavelength resolution at an integrated horizontal angle of 1.1 mrad around the angular peak of the XRL emission. The output from the streak camera was amplied and recorded by the combination of a 50/40 Kentech intensier butt-coupled to an optical CCD camera. This conguration was estimated to give a temporal resolution of 1.9 0.2 ps. The FWHM duration of the XRL pulse was measured (after a deconvolution taking into account the temporalresolution-limit response function) to be 1.9 0.7 ps. The XRL signal was extinguished on the rising edge of the continuum emission. This observation was repeatable for a number of different pump-laser parameters. One possible interpretation of this result is that the rising edge of the continuum emission is the result of overionization within the plasma which, in turn, signals the extinction of the population inversion on the gain line. One may also postulate, however, that the relative time delay between the peak XRL output and the peak continuum emission is the result of a thermal wave traveling towards the dense target surface. Such an occurrence would not necessarily affect the population dynamics in the lasing ion. The nature of our experimental setup meant that no information regarding the spatial distribution of the continuum emission in relation to the XRL output was available. The high-resolution characterization of the XRL output yielded previously unobtainable insights into the nature of the XRL output for the transient collisional excitation scheme. It is clear, however, that to explain these observations fully, a comprehensive theoretical modeling effort is needed to complement the experimental work.

3. MODEL DESCRIPTION
The simulations of the above experimental conditions were carried out using the EHYBRID22 hydrodynamic and atomic code. EHYBRID, which was developed to understand the evolution of the lasing material, describes many physical processes, including pump-laser energy deposition, hydrodynamic motion, electronic thermal conduction, and ionelectron thermalization coupled with the atomic physics of the lasant ions.2729 The model is

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1.5-dimensional (or sometimes described as quasi-twodimensional29), designated to operate in planar geometry. The code uses a 296-Lagrangian-cell matrix in the direction away from the target. The uid is hence modeled in the direction parallel to the driving laser by cells that are assumed to be laterally isothermal; as such, the transverse expansion is considered to be self-similar.22 The calculation of the ionization balance within the plasma, and in particular the abundance of the nickellike ions, is of central importance in these simulations. In EHYBRID, time-dependent ionization is calculated using a collisional radiative model. The model represents the most sophisticated treatment available of time-dependent atomic physics in plasmas. Electron-ion collision (excitation, deexcitation, and ionization) and recombination (three-body, radiative, and dielectronic) processes are included in the coupled rate equations for each ionic level. Radiative losses are taken into account. The escape factors are incorporated into the collisional-radiative model and can be controlled in the input le. However, the code EHYBRID does not account for radiative processes involving the x-ray line, such as absorption and induced emission. In other words, it ignores the line propagation. The ionization rate of Golden et al.30 is implemented, with three-body recombination calculated from the detailed inverse balance. Processes such as excitation, autoionization, and inner-shell ionization are not considered, but this level of detail for the lasing ion is found to produce good agreement with experiment. However computational limitations mean that more approximate descriptions must be implemented for the other ion stages. In the data set for silver, ion stages other than the nickellike ion stage are treated with a simpler twolevel model based on a modied form of Griems model,31 or with the screened hydrogenic model. The model assumes that absorption of the pumping laser is due to inverse bremsstrahlung (and considers refraction). The inverse bremsstrahlung coefcient is calculated for the propagation of the laser pulse towards the target surface and, for reection of the laser pulse away from the critical surface. High-eld modications of this coefcient are not included. Resonant absorption is modeled by assuming a 30% dump of the laser energy reaching the critical surface. The thermal conductivity for both ions and electrons is given by the classical Harm Spitzer expression.32 As this formula is valid only if the mean free path of electrons remains small in comparison with typical temperature gradient dimensions, the thermal conductivity is subject to an empirical ux limit of f 0.1 as usual in this type of code. There are some modications to this parameter in the low-temperature, solid-density region (applicable to low-level prepulses22). The atomic physics, hydrodynamics, and transport within the plasma are solved self-consistently through a solution of the electron energy balance. The atomic data input le for silver was constructed by the present authors. The nickellike ion stage is modeled with 272 excited levels including all levels in the n 4 and n 5 manifolds and with averaged contributions from the n 6 to n 8 levels. As mentioned above ion stages other than nickellike are treated with varying degrees of complexity using a screened hydrogenic model or

a simpler two-level model based on the modied form of the Griems model.33 Electron-ion collision cross sections were calculated at LULI (Laboratoire pour lUtilisation des Lasers Intenses, Ecole Polytechnique, France) for all transitions within the n 4 manifold using the code HULLAC (Hebrew University Lawrence Livermore Atomic Code).34 For the calculation of the excitation and deexcitation rates, we did not use the standard EHYBRID procedure with d-coefcients that were introduced by van Wyngaarden et al.35 In fact it is more satisfactory to calculate all the rates for each electron density and temperature with the help of a subroutine added into EHYBRID. Oscillator strengths for all transitions in the n 4 to n 8 manifolds were calculated with a multicongurational DiracFock code.36 Our atomic data calculations allow for one vacancy in the n 3 shell.

4. RESULTS
A. XRL Plasma Conditions The input conditions to the simulations were set to model those that were found to be optimal during the experimental campaign cited in Section 2. Figure 1 shows the gain on the primary line for nickellike silver, the 4d 1 S 0 1 P 1 4p lasing transition at 13.9 nm, as a function of time and distance away from the target surface. The peak of the 1.3-ps (FWHM) heating-pump-laser pulse occurs at 0.65 ps on the time scale (dashed line in Fig. 1). Two distinct regions are predicted. When the 1.3 ps heating pulse is rst turned on there is an emergence of a region of large gain ( 500 cm 1) with small dimensions both in space ( 5 m within 15 m of the target surface) and time ( 1 ps at FWHM). When the laser is turned off and the plasma expands, a larger plateau with gains 400 cm 1 extending out to 40 m is observed. To what extent these gain regions contribute to the XRL output is largely dependent on the density scale lengths that exist within the plasma. The smaller the

Fig. 1. Local gain on the 4d 1 S 0 1 P 1 4p lasing transition as a function of time and distance away from target surface. The peak of the 1.3-ps FWHM CPA pump pulse occurs at 0.65 ps. The maximum gain zone is very restricted both in time and space. The plot depicts the gain contour lines of 50 cm 1, 100 cm 1 and further consecutive steps of 100 cm 1.

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Electron temperatures reaching 2000 eV are expected at the critical density surface (Fig. 3). Temperature falls quickly at distances farther away from the target, which is a trend similar to that of the gain prole in Fig. 2. After the main heating pulse is turned off, the bulk of the plasma stays hot ( 500 eV) for 1020 picoseconds. This prolonged heating causes the average ionization of the plasma to increase rapidly. The effect is illustrated in Fig. 4 where the average ionization is given for each of the 296 Lagrangian cells as a function of time. In the region of space-time where high gains are predicted, the fraction of nickellike silver ions (Fig. 5) reaches nearly 40%. It is observed that after a short time ( 1 ps) the plasma overionizes (Fig. 4). Previous work has shown this effect and the associated collisional redistribution of the excited-

Fig. 2. Temporal evolution of the free electron density as a function of time and distance away from the target surface. High gain peak predicted in Fig. 1 is shown to reside 15 m from the target where steep density gradients and the associated refractive effects would prohibit extensive sampling by the x-ray laser beam.

Fig. 4. Temporally resolved average ionization within each of the 98 Lagrangian cells expanding away from the target surface.

Fig. 3. Heating of the supercritical densities to temperatures as high as 1.8 keV is predicted during the main heating pulse. These greater-than-1-keV temperatures coexist spatially and temporally with the gain spike shown in Fig. 1. The temperature gradients are similar to those observed for the gain, with quick dissipation from a small intense region into a larger more uniform plateau with temperatures below 500 eV.

density scale lengths at a given point in space, the more refraction will tend to preclude spatial sampling by the XRL beam as it propagates along the line focus. In comparison with the predicted evolution of the local gain, we can see in Fig. 2 that the high gain peaks at electron densities close to 1021 cm 3 . This is the critical density surface of the 1.06- m laser driver and coincides spatially with a region of steep density gradients. It would be expected, therefore, that spatial sampling of this region would be limited by refraction. It is observed that the density gradients become more relaxed at distances away from the critical density surface and so, because of reduced refraction effects and its larger dimensions, the larger region of lower gain is expected to contribute most to the XRL output.37,38

Fig. 5. The ratios of nickellike, copperlike, cobaltlike ion stages (i.e., 19-, 18-, and 20-times-ionized silver ions) at 7 m from the target as calculated by the EHYBRID code at optimum conditions dened during the RAL 2000 experiment. The temporal peak of the gain appears clearly before the maximum of nickellike ions.

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Fig. 6. Maximum bremsstrahlung emission appears clearly after the peak of the gain (Fig. 1)as observed during the RAL experiment 16,17driven by a high electron density in the later times after the gain peak. Bremsstrahlung emission (in arbitrary units corresponding to the energy per unit volume and unit time in a small wavelength interval at 13.9 nm) developed in each space-time cell as it was calculated from the EHYBRID results.

easily calculate the radiation developed by bremsstrahlung in a small wavelength interval around the 13.9 nm nickellike silver line, per unit volume and unit time in each space-time-cell in the plasma (Fig. 6). Even though this calculation should be considered as an estimate (because a Maxwellian electron velocity distribution is assumed, which is not necessarily true in the case of transient XRLs), it clearly shows that the continuum emission peak should arrive after the XRL peak, following the behavior of the electron density. When calculating the actual continuum emission energy at the plasma exit, we should take into account the propagation of the radiation by different paths for each wavelength. In our estimates we show the time-resolved continuum emission (released from a small portion of plasma along the target) integrated over the horizontal angle only (which, in this one-dimensional model, is equivalent to integration over the transverse distance from the target surface; Fig. 7). As observed during the experiment, the bremsstrahlung emission rises slowly with its maximum well after the peak of the XRL pulse (17.6 ps after the peak of the pump-laser pulse).

level populations to be the main mechanism for extinguishing the population inversion on the gain transition.18 Such a hot, ionizing plasma with consistent densities would be expected to have enhanced continuum emission, as was observed in Refs. 16 and 17. The calculations described in Figs. 14 are very similar to those predicted by other hydrodynamic codes for silver.1921 B. Continuum Emission Study During the experiment cited above the XRL output intensity peak appeared on the rising edge of the continuum emission. To explain the continuum emission behavior we have to study the space-time distribution of plasma parameters carefully. In our simulation the maximum gain corresponds to the electron temperature peak. The ion density remains maximal near the target and does not develop signicantly in time. In contrast, both electron density (Fig. 2) and average ionization (Fig. 4) rise substantially with time in the zone within a few micrometers of the target surface (the electron density increases by several orders of magnitude in the zone near the target surface), which is also in opposition to the electron temperature behavior (Fig. 3). This is very important for our estimation of the continuum emission because it is assumed to be dominated by bremsstrahlung emission. The bremsstrahlung Q( ) emitted by a plasma per unit time and unit volume in a small frequency interval around can be described by39 Q d Z 2 n e n i T e 1/2 exp /kT e d ,

5. DISCUSSION
The EHYBRID code was shown to give excellent agreement with experimental observations for 75-ps pumping schemes, e.g., those of Refs. 40 and 41. In the case of transient plasmas, however, the gain region is much smaller, lies at high densities close to the critical electron density, and exists for shorter time periods. Experimentally we have seen many inhomogeneities in the near-eld imaging of the gain region. Such experimental inhomogeneities are not modeled by the code and thus contribute to discrepancies between experimentally and theoretically realized observables. For the transient scheme the short-lived gains at high electron densities are more sensitive to any slight varia-

where n e and n i stand for electron and ion densities, Z is the average ionic charge, T e is electron temperature, is the circular frequency, and k and represent the Boltzmann and Planck constants, respectively. In our computation we neglect the slowly varying Gaunt factor function as is usual in many practical applications.39 Having studied the plasma parameters n e , n i , Z, and T e , we can

Fig. 7. Bremsstrahlung emission energy in a small wavelength interval at 13.9 nm integrated over horizontal angle at the exit from the plasma as calculated for the RAL 2000 experimental conditions.

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tions in the irradiation conditions. Experimentally, neareld imaging of the XRL output has shown the gain region to be highly structured because of target and beam nonuniformities.42 The short picosecond time scale involved in the traveling wave heating and gain generation means that the inhomogeneities within the plasma are fully experienced by the XRL pulse during transit along the line focus. Such results clearly indicate that the smoothly evolving gain prole predicted in Fig. 1 is not experimentally realized. The very limited maximum gain zonelimited both in space and timepredicted by EHYBRID simulations increases requirements on (1) the traveling wave velocitys matching with the photon speed and on (2) suitable conditions in the plasma, especially electron density gradients. The rst problem has recently been addressed theoretically by several authors.43,44 They predict XRL beam retardation (compared to the speed of light in vacuum c) and line prole transformations in an active medium when the beam is amplied. According to the latter paper, these effects should, however, remain weak (but not negligible) and have not yet been conrmed experimentally. On the other hand, the second problem denitely plays an important role. When there is an electron density gradient in the XRL plasma, the beam is deected. For such small-gain zones and such high plasma-density gradients, as is the case in transient XRL plasmas, the beam leaves the zone of maximum amplication before reaching the end of the target. We dealt with beam deection in Refs. 37 and 38. The calculation shows that the beam would leave such a small maximum gain zone typically after a 3.5-mm propagation at most. Our simulation results are, however, similar to the results obtained with other codes, namely the CHIVAS-LASIX20,21 set of numerical codes and the LASNEX code at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory19 where extremely high local gains are also predicted.

RAL experiment in 2000. This effect is caused by the fast variations in plasma electron density and other parameters in the plasma so that the maximum emission arrives after the XRL peak. Previous observations with a low-resolution streak camera (as reported, for example in Ref. 21) did not allow distinguishing the XRL peak from the maximum of the continuum emission.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank Joseph Nilsen of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Jir Limpouch of the Czech Technical University in Prague for helpful discussions in preparing this paper. R.F. Smith was funded by the European Union Training and Mobility of Researchers X-ray Laser Network contract ERBFMRXCT98-0185. J. Kuba was supported in part by grant CTU300111714 of the Czech Technical University in Prague. J. Kuba may be reached by e-mail at kuba1@llnl.gov.

*Present address, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, L-251, Livermore, California 94550.

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1. D. L. Matthews, P. L. Hagelstein, M. D. Rosen, M. J. Eckart, N. M. Ceglio, A. U. Hazi, H. Medecki, B. J. MacGowan, J. E. Trebes, B. L. Whitten, E. M. Campbell, C. W. Hatcher, A. M. Hawryluk, R. L. Kauffman, L. D. Pleasance, G. Rambach, J. H. Scoeld, G. Stone, and T. A. Weaver, Demonstration of a soft x-ray amplier, Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 110 113 (1985). Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on X-Ray Lasers, G. Jamelot, C. Moller, and A. Klisnick, J. Phys. IV 11 (2001). B. Rus, A. Carillon, P. Dhez, P. Jaegle, G. Jamelot, A. Klisnick, M. Nantel, and P. Zeitoun, Efcient, high-brightness soft-x-ray laser at 21.2 nm, Phys. Rev. A 55, 38583873 (1997). T. Boehly, M. Russotto, R. S. Craxton, R. Epstein, B. Yaakobi, L. B. Da Silva, J. Nilsen, E. A. Chandler, D. J. Fields, B. J. MacGowan, D. L. Matthews, J. H. Scoeld, and G. Shimkaveg, Demonstration of a narrow-divergence x-ray laser in neonlike titanium, Phys. Rev. A 42, 69626966 (1990). J. Nilsen, B. J. MacGowan, L. B. Da Silva, and J. C. Moreno, Prepulse technique for producing low-Z Ne-like x-ray lasers, Phys. Rev. A 48, 46824685 (1993). E. E. Fill, Y. Li, G. Pretzler, D. Schlogl, J. Steingruber, and J. Nilsen, Investigation of lasing on the J 0 1 line of neon-like ions using the prepulse technique, in Soft X-ray Lasers and Applications, J. J. Rocca and P. L. Hagelstein, eds., Proc. SPIE 2520, 134144 (1995). R. Smith, G. J. Tallents, J. Zhang, G. Eker, S. McCabe, G. J. Pert, and E. Wolfrum, Saturation behavior of two x-ray lasing transitions in Ni-like Dy, Phys. Rev. A 59, R47R50 (1999). S. Sebban, H. Daido, N. Sakaya, Y. Kato, K. Murai, H. Tang, Y. Gu, G. Huang, S. Wang, A. Klisnick, P. Zeitoun, F. Koike, and H. Takenaka, Full characterization of a high-gain saturated x-ray laser at 13.9 nm, Phys. Rev. A 61, 043810 (2000). J. Zhang, A. G. MacPhee, J. Lin, E. Wolfrum, R. Smith, C. Danson, M. H. Key, C. L. S. Lewis, D. Neely, J. Nilsen, G. J. Pert, G. J. Tallents, and J. S. Wark, A saturated x-ray laser beam at 7 nanometers, Science 276, 10971100 (1997). Y. V. Afanasiev and V. N. Shlyaptsev, Formation of a popu-

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6. CONCLUSION
Experimental observations at RAL have shown the transient nickellike-silver XRL to have a duration of 1.8 ps under optimum pumping conditions. The time-resolved output of the XRL plasma has consistently shown that lasing is extinguished on the rising edge of continuum. One possible explanation is that this increased emission is indicative of over-ionization within the plasma, and this is the main mechanism for destroying the population inversion. An atomic data le was constructed for the atomic physics code EHYBRID to better understand population and plasma dynamics. High gains ( 700 cm 1) were predicted near the critical surface with a broad lower gain ( 400 cm 1) plateau at subcritical densities. The plasma is expected to over-ionize after 510 picoseconds. The gain peaks 1.1 ps after the pump laser peak and lasts for only 3.1 ps (FWHM). Its distance from the target is of the order of 7 m. The calculated parameters enabled us to explain why the XRL always appeared in the rising edge of the continuum emission from the plasma, as observed during the

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