The inner-shell photoionized x-ray lasing scheme is an attractive method for achieving x-ray lasing at short wavelengths, via population inversion following inner-shell photoionization (ISPI). This scheme promises both a short wavelength and a short pulse source of coherent x rays with high average power. In this dissertation a very complete study of the ISPI x-ray laser scheme is done concerning target structure, filter design and lasant medium. An investigation of the rapid rise time of x-ray emission from targets heated by an ultra-short pulse high-intensity optical laser was conducted for use as the x-ray source for ISPI x-ray lasing. Lasing by this approach in C at a wavelength of 45 {angstrom} requires a short pulse (about 50 fsec) driving optical laser with an energy of 1-5 J and traveling wave optics with an accuracy of {approximately} 15 {micro}m. The optical laser is incident on a high-Z target creating a high-density plasma which emits a broadband spectrum of x rays. This x-ray source is passed through a filter to eliminate the low-energy x rays. The remaining high-energy x rays preferentially photoionize inner-shell electrons resulting in a population inversion. Inner-shell photoionized x-ray lasing relies on the large energy of a K-{alpha} transition …

In this thesis, the possibility of controlling low- and high-dimensional chaotic systems by periodically driving an accessible system parameter is examined. This method has been carried out on several numerical systems and the MST Reversed Field Pinch. The numerical systems investigated include the logistic equation, the Lorenz equations, the Roessler equations, a coupled lattice of logistic equations, a coupled lattice of Lorenz equations, the Yoshida equations, which model tearing mode fluctuations in a plasma, and a neural net model for magnetic fluctuations on MST. This method was tested on the MST by sinusoidally driving a magnetic flux through the toroidal gap of the device. Numerically, periodic drives were found to be most effective at producing limit cycle behavior or significantly reducing the dimension of the system when the perturbation frequency was near natural frequencies of unstable periodic orbits embedded in the attractor of the unperturbed system. Several different unstable periodic orbits have been stabilized in this way for the low-dimensional numerical systems, sometimes with perturbation amplitudes that were less than 5% of the nominal value of the parameter being perturbed. In high-dimensional systems, limit cycle behavior and significant decreases in the system dimension were also achieved using perturbations with frequencies …