Kα X-ray Emission from Nanowire Cu Targets Driven by Femtosecond Laser Pulses for X-ray Conversion and Backlight Imaging

[Image: see text] A high-quality X-ray source was proposed by modifying the target material structure characteristics driven by ultrahigh laser energy. The experiments were performed on the Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser beam device (4.3–6 J, 30 fs), one of the three XG-III lasers in Laser Fusion Research Center of China Academy of Engineering Physics. The femtosecond laser beam drove the nanowire copper material with an average length of 18–50 μm and a diameter of about 260 nm. A single-photon counting charge-coupled device was employed to measure the copper Kα X-ray emission of the nanowire and foil targets. A clear maximum photon yield of the nanowire target was calculated to be 3.6 × 10(8) photons sr(–1) s(–1), the conversion efficiency was up to 0.0087%, and the average yield was 2.5 times that of the copper foil targets. In addition, by using a pinhole imaging method of φ10 μm, the minimum full width at half maximum spot size of the X-ray source was calculated in the range of 85–240 μm, which was similar to that of the copper foil material with a long radius of 170 μm and a short radius of 63 μm. The experimental data illustrate that the nanowire has the potential to enhance the energy absorption of femtosecond laser for X-ray conversion and backlight imaging.