Soft X-ray emission from ethanol droplets irradiated by moderate femtosecond laser pulses

Abstract: We investigate the soft X-ray emission and angular distribution of hot electrons from ethanol droplets irradiated by linearly polarized 150 fs laser pulses at an intensity of 1016W/cm2. The Strong soft x-ray emission is detected from the droplet plasma. Two hot electron jets symmetrically with respect to the laser propagation direction are observed within the polarization plane. This agrees with 2D particle-in-cell simulations. An atomic kinetics code suite FLY is used to simulate the soft X-ray emission spectrum. The strong X-ray emission indicates the interaction between liquid droplets and intensity laser would be a possible way to generate X-ray lasers.