X-ray generator

US3961197A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The United States of America as represented by the United States Energy Research and Development Administration · US

Inventor

• John M. Dawson · Santa Monica, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Aug 21, 1974
• Grant date: Jun 1, 1976
• Expiry date: Aug 21, 1994

Classification

• Technology area (CPC H): Electricity
• CPC primary: H01S4/00
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Apparatus and method for producing coherent secondary x-rays that are controlled as to direction by illuminating a mixture of high z and low z gases with an intense burst of primary x-rays. The primary x-rays are produced with a laser activated plasma, and these x-rays strip off the electrons of the high z atoms in the lasing medium, while the low z atoms retain their electrons. The neutral atoms transfer electrons to highly excited states of the highly striped high z ions giving an inverted population which produces the desired coherent x-rays. In one embodiment, a laser, light beam provides a laser spark that produces the intense burst of coherent x-rays that illuminates the mixture of high z and low z gases, whereby the high z atoms are stripped while the low z ones are not, giving the desired mixture of highly ionized and neutral atoms. To this end, the laser spark is produced by injecting a laser light beam, or a plurality of beams, into a first gas in a cylindrical container having an adjacent second gas layer co-axial therewith, the laser producing a plasma and the intense primary x-rays in the first gas, and the second gas containing the high and low atomic number elements …