First experimental results of a very high power density capillary discharge plasma

We present the first experimental results of a new high power density capillary discharge designed to explore the generation of axially uniform plasma columns for the development of discharge pumped lasers at shorter wavelength. Currents up to 200 kA with approximate to 10 ns rise times were utilized to generate plasmas in 4 mm diameter polyacetal capillaries. Time resolved pinhole images and time resolve spectra are presented. Comparisons of the experimental data with model computations suggest that electron temperatures up to 300 eV and densities of 1-2 x 10(20) cm(-3) have been obtained for argon plasma column of approximate to 250 mu m in diameter.