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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/M88969/01
Title: DISCHARGE-ABLATED CAPILLARY WAVEGUIDES FOR DRIVING SHORT-WAVELENGTH LASERS
Principal Investigator: Hooker, Professor S
Other Investigators:
Webb, Professor C
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Oxford Physics
Organisation: University of Oxford
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 October 1999 Ends: 30 September 2001 Value (£): 97,678
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Lasers & Optics
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
For table-top short-wavelength lasers driven by terawatt femtosecond laser, both the efficiency of energy extraction, and the number of x-ray laser realised, are presently limited by severe defocusing of the pump laser beam. We aim to overcome this restriction by building on our recent results in which we used a discharge-ablated capillary to guide laser pulses over lengths of 10 nm at an input intensity of 10^16 W/cm^2.The proposed research aims to optimise the operation of this novel wave-guide, and to use it to drive short wavelength lasers within the guiding channel for the first tie. To this end we will measure the evolution of the guiding channel during the discharge pulse and investigate how the channel may be optimised. We will develop new gas-filled versions of the guide, providing a wide range of potential main media. We aim to demonstrate improved guiding performance with input densities of greater than 10^17 W/cm^2. As an illustration of the promise of this new approach, we aim to achieve saturated separation of the 41.8 nm laser in Xe IX, and its analogues in Kr and Ar. This will be the first demonstration of saturation of a table-top laser operating below 50 nm.
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Organisation Website: http://www.ox.ac.uk