A simple and fast method for thickness measurements using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) is described. The method is applicable on samples with a thickness smaller than the electron depth range and does not require any knowledge of instrumental parameters. The thickness is determined by means of the distance that electrons travel inside the sample before crossing through it. Samples are first deposited on a substrate that, when reached by the transmitted electrons, produces an X-ray signal. The measured characteristic X-ray line intensity of the substrate is later used to determine the energy of transmitted electrons, which is proportional to the distance that electrons travel inside the sample. The study was performed on spherical K411 glass particles and cylindrical particles of U–Ce oxide with a size ranging from 0.2 to 4 μm. The measured thicknesses of all the studied particles showed good agreements with the real values. Although the method is only validated on particles with usual shapes, it can be applied to determine a local thickness of thin samples with irregular morphologies. This can help solving multiple issues in analysis with EPMA of non-bulk samples exhibiting complex geometries. Three dimensional microscopic imaging could also find a good utility in the described method.

We present a broad study of linear, clustered, noble gas puffs irradiated with the frequency doubled (527 nm) Titan laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Pure Ar, Kr, and Xe clustered gas puffs, as well as two mixed-gas puffs consisting of KrAr and XeKrAr gases, make up the targets. Characterization experiments to determine gas-puff density show that varying the experimental parameter gas-delay timing (the delay between gas puff initialization and laser-gas-puff interaction) provides a simple control over the gas-puff density. X-ray emission (>1.4 keV) is studied as a function of gas composition, density, and delay timing. Xe gas puffs produce the strongest peak radiation in the several keV spectral region. The emitted radiation was found to be anisotropic, with smaller X-ray flux observed in the direction perpendicular to both laser beam propagation and polarization directions. The degree of anisotropy is independent of gas target type but increases with photon energy. X-ray spectroscopic measurements estimate plasma parameters and highlight their difference with previous studies. Electron beams with energy in excess of 72 keV are present in the noble gas-puff plasmas and results indicate that Ar plays a key role in their production. A drastic increase in harder X-ray emissions (X-ray flash effect) and multi-MeV electron-beam generation from Xe gas-puff plasma occurred when the laser beam was focused on the front edge of the linear gas puff.

A theoretical model of soft X-ray emission from laser irradiated clusters is developed. An intense short pulse laser of Gaussian radial and temporal profiles impinged on a clustered gas jet, heats the cluster electrons, leading to Bremsstrahlung emission of X-rays. As the clusters expand under hydrodynamic pressure, plasma frequency of the cluster electrons ωpe decreases. When plasma frequency of a cluster approaches plasma resonance ${\rm \omega}_{\,pe} = \sqrt{3} {\rm \omega}$ (where ω is the laser frequency), the electrons are resonantly heated by the laser and a rapid rise in X-ray emission occurs. After a while, when cluster expansion detunes the plasma resonance, X-ray emission falls off.

The relationship between the speed of coronal mass ejections and the peak soft X-ray flux of the associated flares is studied for events occurring near the solar limbs between 1996 and 2008. An improved, though still moderate, correlation between the two parameters is found.

XFILM is a computer program for determining the thickness and composition of thin films on substrates and multilayers by electron probe microanalysis. In this study, we describe the X-ray emission model implemented in the latest version of XFILM and assess its reliability by comparing measured and calculated k-ratios from thin-film samples available in the literature. We present and discuss examples of applications of XFILM that illustrate the capabilities of the program.

We present the temporal and spatial characterization of X-ray sources (at ~1 keV) driven by a 200 TW, 30 fs, 800 nm laser pulse on SILEX-I laser facility at Research Center of Laser Fusion. For laser copper foil interaction with laser intensity between 6 × 1018 W/cm2 and 3 × 1019 W/cm2, the X-ray images show cone-like jet structures. While the yield of X-rays is strongly dependent on the laser intensity, the plasma expansion length is weakly dependent on the laser intensity, and the open angle of the cone-like jet is not correlated to the laser intensity. The formation of the jet structure is attributed to the plasma transverse confine by the self-induced quasi-static magnetic field. An X-ray pedestal 4 ns preceding the main pulse was observed. The correlation between X-ray pedestal and collimated proton beam generation was found.

The dynamics of fast laser-induced vacuum discharge, with a rather small value of amplitude of current (≤ 10 kA), as well as the voltage and energy of the capacitor bank (≤ 20 kV and 20 J, respectively), have been investigated. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the initiations conditions determined by the energy and duration of the laser radiation, fundamentally determine the dynamics of the discharge. Two types of space and time separated plasma instabilities are revealed. It was found that the first of instabilities occurs at the initial stage of the discharge and is caused by a pinch structure, which takes place in front of a cathode jet extending in vacuum. The second type of instabilities arises at the top or recession of the current and is accompanied by the generation of hard (energy ≥100 keV) bremsstrahlung X-ray radiation from the anode area. The excess energy of the hard components of radiation over the potential of the current source is associated with the effects of plasma-erosive breaking.

Very massive stars (${\gtrsim} 20$ M$_{\odot}$) are rare but important components of galaxies. Products of core nucleosynthesis from these stars are distributed into the circumstellar environment via wind-driven mass loss. Explosive nucleosynthesis after core collapse further enriches the galactic medium. Clusters of such stars can produce galactic chimneys which can pierce the galactic disk and chemically enrich intergalactic space. Such processes are vitally important to the chemical evolution of the early Universe, when the stellar mass function was much more weighted to massive stars.

Very massive stars are difficult to study, since they are formed in distant clusters which yield problems of sensitivity and source crowding. A relatively new tool for studying these systems is via high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution observations in the X-ray band. In this note we describe some recent progress in studying mechanisms by which very massive stars produce X-ray emission.

When a dielectric is irradiated by electrons with energy E of several kiloelectron volts, a large number of processes take place: backscattering of incident electrons, excitation and ionization of the electrons in the dielectric with binding energies lower than E, creation of excitons, radiative and nonradiative decays of the excited and ionized states, slowing down of the primary and secondary electrons, and thermalization in the conduction band. The thermalized electrons can move freely in the unoccupied conduction states of the material. If electric connection exists between the dielectric and the apparatus, then the charges normally flow out. Thermalized electrons can also be trapped in excited levels localized in the band gap of the dielectric and nonradiative and radiative recombinations from these levels can be observed. The number of the trapped electrons varies with the structural characteristics of the dielectric. In a monocrystal, this number is weak because the number of the defect states in the band gap is small, making the localization of the charges restricted. In contrast, in a polycrystal or amorphous material, the number of the trapped electrons can be large and increases with the disorder. Information on the charge effects suffered by the sample during its irradiation can be deduced by studying the trapping of electrons in localized states and, consequently, by analyzing radiations emitted from these states in the visible and X-ray ranges. In the case of oxides, F+ centers (oxygen–ion vacancy having trapped one electron) and F centers (F+ center having trapped a second electron) are generally present. We will show that the F+ [harr ] F conversion can be used to study the dynamic of the trapping in the oxides. Application to various samples of crystallized and amorphous alumina will be presented.

Results for the X-ray emission efficiency (counts per C per sr) of K-lines for selected elements (C, Al, Si, Ti, Cu, Ge) and for the first time also for compounds and alloys (SiC, GaP, AlCu, TiAlC) are presented. An energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) of known detection efficiency (counts per photon) has been used to record the spectra at a takeoff angle of 25° determined by the geometry of the secondary electron microscope's specimen chamber. Overall uncertainty in measurement could be reduced to 5 to 10% in dependence on the line intensity and energy. Measured emission efficiencies have been compared with calculated efficiencies based on models applied in standardless analysis. The widespread XPP and PROZA models give somewhat too low emission efficiencies. The best agreement between measured and calculated efficiencies could be achieved by replacing in the modular PROZA96 model the original expression for the ionization cross section by the formula given by Casnati et al. (1982) A discrepancy remains for carbon, probably due to the high overvoltage ratio.

From a ROSAT HRI observation of Cygnus A (42 ksec), we detect x-ray emission from the galaxy identified with the radio source. This was accomplished by subtracting a modified King model: (Surface brightness ∝ to [1+(r/a)2](0.5–3β)) in order to study residual features once the main body of emission from diffuse gas had been deleted. The central source was present for all acceptable values of the core radius, a, and exponent, β. Details of the image processing, an evaluation of emission from the radio hotspots, and a study of the effect of the radio lobes on the gas distribution will be presented elsewhere.