Plasma characterization of the gas-puff target source dedicated for soft X-ray microscopy using SiC detectors

An Nd:YAG pulsed laser was employed to irradiate a nitrogen gas-puff target. The interaction gives rise to the emission of soft X-ray (SXR) radiation in the ‘water window’ spectral range (λ= 2.3÷4.4 nm). This source was already successfully employed to perform the SXR microscopy. In this work, a Silicon Carbide (SiC) detector was used to characterize the nitrogen plasma emission in terms of gas-puff target parameters. The measurements show applicability of SiC detectors for SXR plasma characterization.