Transverse spatial coherence of a transient nickellike silver soft-x-ray laser pumped by a single picosecond laser pulse

The degree of spatial coherence in the direction perpendicular to the target surface is reported for a transient nickellike silver x-ray laser at 13.9 nm. An x-ray laser plasma column was produced by irradiating a slab silver target with a single shaped picosecond laser pulse with energy less than 3 J. Young's double-slit method was applied to measure the fringe visibility as a function of the slit separation for different target lengths. The diameter of the equivalent incoherent source and the coherence radius of the output radiation were determined as well. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.