“Water window” sources: Selection based on the interplay of spectral properties and multilayer reflection bandwidth

Development of laser-produced plasma “water window” sources poses a major challenge in x-ray research and most effort has focused on line sources for use with zone plate optics. Here, a comparison of carbon and nitrogen line emission with that from both 3d – 4f and 4d – 4f unresolved transition arrays shows that, at power densities available from “table-top” solid-state lasers, 3d – 4f emission from zirconium plasmas is most intense, and calculations show that in an imaging system based on multilayer mirrors, for reflectance bandwidths >1% has superior performance than either line or broader-band sources. For bandwidths <1%, line sources are preferable.