Nearly four decades ago H-like and He-like resonantly photo-pumped laser schemes were proposed for producing X-ray lasers. However, demonstrating these schemes in the laboratory has proved to be elusive because of the difficulty of finding a strong resonant pump line. With the advent of the X-ray free electron laser (X-FEL) at the SLAC Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) we now have a tunable X-ray laser source that can be used to replace the pump line in previously proposed laser schemes and allow researchers to study the physics and feasibility of resonantly photo-pumped laser schemes. In this paper we use the X-FEL at 1174 eV to photo-pump the singly excited 1s2p state of He-like Ne to the doubly excited 2p3p state and model gain on the 2p3p-2p2s transition at 175 eV and the 2p3p-1s3p transition at 1017 eV. One motivation for studying this scheme is to explore possible quenching of the gain due to strong non-linear coupling effects from the intense X-FEL beam We compare this scheme with photo-pumping the He-like Ne ground state to the 1s3p singly excited state followed by lasing on the 3p-2s and 3d-2p transitions at 158 and 151 eV. Experiments are being planned at LCLS to …

Structures of nanoparticles and their role in dual-ion irradiated Fe-16Cr-4.5Al-0.3Ti-2W-0.37Y{sub 2}O{sub 3} (K3) ODS ferritic steel produced by mechanical alloying (MA) were studied using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) techniques. The observation of Y{sub 4}Al{sub 2}O{sub 9} complex-oxide nanoparticles in the ODS steel imply that decomposition of Y{sub 2}O{sub 3} in association with internal oxidation of Al occurred during mechanical alloying. HRTEM observations of crystalline and partially crystalline nanoparticles larger than {approx}2 nm and amorphous cluster-domains smaller than {approx}2 nm provide an insight into the formation mechanism of nanoparticles/clusters in MA/ODS steels, which we believe involves solid-state amorphization and re-crystallization. The role of nanoparticles/clusters in suppressing radiation-induced swelling is revealed through TEM examinations of cavity distributions in (Fe + He) dual-ion irradiated K3-ODS steel. HRTEM observations of helium-filled cavities (helium bubbles) preferably trapped at nanoparticle/clusters in dual-ion irradiated K3-ODS are presented.

Recently discovered scintillators for gamma ray spectroscopy, single crystal SrI{sub 2}(Eu), GYGAG(Ce) transparent ceramic and Bismuth-loaded plastics, offer resolution and fabrication advantages compared to commercial scintillators, such as NaI(Tl) and standard PVT plastic. Energy resolution at 662 keV of 2.7% is obtained with SrI{sub 2}(Eu), while 4.5% is obtained with GYGAG(Ce). A new transparent ceramic scintillator for radiographic imaging systems, GLO(Eu) offers high light yield of 70,000 Photons/MeV, high stopping, and low radiation damage. Implementation of single crystal SrI{sub 2}(Eu), Gd-based transparent ceramics, and Bi-loaded plastic scintillators can advance the state-of-the art in ionizing radiation detection systems.

None