Abstract. An investigation of the scaling of ATI ionization and cascade recombination is used to identify possible conditions for generating population inversion and gain on the Lyman α transition of hydrogenic ions. We employ a variety of simulation methods to identify the heating and recombination characteristics of carbon plasmas to predict possible pumping configurations for generating laser action at 33 Å using carbon.

Print publication: Issue 22 (28 November 2009)
Received 20 July 2009, in final form 30 September 2009
Published 30 October 2009