Table-top two-color soft X-ray laser from Ni-like Mo plasma

Two-color laser pulses in a laboratory setup are interesting for enabling a number of advanced spectroscopy techniques. The generation by means of Ni-like laser-produced plasmas is promising for scaling down the wavelength towards the soft X-ray. The occurrence of a two-color signal has been documented in the 1990s and a detailed atomic physics study interpreted the pulse as due to concomitant collisional pumping (color-1) and self-photoexcitation (color-2). If this framework is on the atomic physics basis valid, its kinetic and hydrodynamic quantitative aspects need to be better understood. In particular, experimental observations leave room for a number of open points. Here we propose am amplified Raman scattering (ARS) scheme, to explain the growth of color-2 and its sensitivity to the plasma irradiation scheme.