Reagan, Brendan A., authorRocca, Jorge, advisorMenoni, Carmen, committee memberMarconi, Mario, committee memberKrueger, David, committee member2007-01-032013-06-012012http://hdl.handle.net/10217/67617There is significant interest in the development of compact high repetition rate soft x-ray lasers for applications. This dissertation describes the development of a high energy, laser diode pumped, chirped pulse amplification laser system for driving soft x-ray lasers in the 10-20 nm spectral region. The compact laser system combines room temperature and cryogenically-cooled Yb:YAG amplifier to produce 1.5 Joule pulses at up to 50 Hz repetition rate. Pulse compression results in 1 J pulses of 5 ps duration. A room temperature pre-amplifier maintains bandwidth for short pulse operation and a novel cryogenic cooling technique for the power amplifier was developed to enable high average power operation of this laser. This laser was used to drive a soft x-ray laser on the 18.9 nm line of nickel-like molybdenum. This is the first demonstration of a soft x-ray laser driven by an all diode-pumped laser.born digitaldoctoral dissertationsengCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.diodeultrafastsoft x-ray laserlaserText