Dense plasma interferometry with a tabletop soft X-ray laser and an amplitude division interferometer based on diffraction gratings

Abstract

We have demonstrated a novel Mach-Zehnder soft x-ray interferometer that uses diffraction gratings as beam splitters. The interferometer was used together with a 46.9nm tabletop soft x-ray laser, to map the evolution of the electron density distribution of a large-scale laser created plasma.