A plasma focus as a radiation source for a laboratory x-ray microscope

Intense soft x-ray emission between 0.4 nm and 10 nm wavelength is observed from Plasmafocus devices operating with typical plasma parameters electron density n equal or bigger than 10 E19 cm-3 and mean particle energies of about 1e keV. As a source for x-ray microscopy we develop a Plasmafocus device for the emission of intense line radiation of hydrogen-like nitrogen at a wavelength of 2.484 nm. Our investigation show that more than 2 10E14 photons per steradian are emitted from our plasma. The diameter of the source is below 0.5 mm and the emission time is about 5 ns. The monochromaticity lambda/delta lambda of the radiation is equal or bigger than 200. The continuum radiation is strongly dependent on the discharge parameters (gas pressure, discharge voltage). It appears that with a specific choice of these parameters no narrowband monochromatic filter is necessary. (ILT)