Surface discharges as intense photon sources in the extreme ultraviolet

We are investigating surface discharges as XUV photon sources for in situ cleaning and preionizing of anode surfaces in light-ion-fusion accelerators. In these experiments the surface discharge was formed by discharging a capacitor bank across a spark gap which consisted of two copper electrodes attached to an insulator and facing each other across a 5.5-mm gap. The surface discharge and its power feeds were constructed in a stripline configuration to minimize overall system inductance. When the surface discharge was driven by a 2.9-μF, 45-kV capacitor bank, the peak current thru the discharge was ∼250 kA. When driven at these levels, a single discharge radiated with a peak power of over 80 MW of 10–70 eV photons and had a total extreme ultraviolet output energy of 60 J per pulse.