A Sub-Picosecond Plasma Source for Time-Resolved X-ray Measurements

The direct and real-time study of structural processes has been very successful in revealing timescales of phase transitions, non-thermal melting, acoustic waves, optical phonons and charge transfer in solids. Time-resolved X-ray diffraction (TRXD) is a rapidly growing research area of much current interest. The most important requirement for such a challenging task is to provide a source of hard X-rays with sub-picosecond pulse duration. In this chapter the development and application of a table-top laser system to generate hard X-rays with sub-picosecond pulse durations for time-resolved X-ray measurements are described.