Effective generation of characteristic K-rays from large laser-excited SF6 clusters in the presence of an Ar carrier gas

The parameters of characteristic sulfur K _α-rays generated from SF₆ clusters that are surrounded by argon atoms and are irradiated by intense laser radiation have been analyzed. It has been found that the formation of large SF₆ clusters under the optimum experimental parameters is accompanied by the high-efficiency generation of the characteristic X rays, and the flux density of the characteristic X-ray photons is 100 photons/(mrad² pulse) at a laser-pulse energy of 5 mJ. It has been shown that the third-harmonic generation process can be used to characterize the spatial sizes of the gas-cluster jet and the region of the cluster plasma.