Femtosecond laser-driven intense Cu Kα X-ray source with a novel film target driver

A laser-induced intense Ka hard X-ray source was developed by using a novel copper film target and a 27-TW femtosecond laser system. A specially designed pinhole camera was employed to measure the X-ray photon flux, X-ray energy spectrum, and X-ray source image. By adapting a single photon counting method, we estimated the photon number in the full width at half maximum (FWHM) spectral region to be 1.74 × 109 photons/sr for 8.05-keV Cu Ka X-rays. The shape of the X-ray source was matched well with that of the focused laser beam on the target. By provision of a lengthy copper film of 50 m with a thickness of 50 µm, the novel copper film target is capable of long time operation of more than 27 hours at a repetition rate of 10 Hz. The hard X-ray source is suitable for applications in single-shot X-ray contrast imaging or in ultrafast pump-probe analyses of material structures.