X-ray yield enhancement from solid targets coated with wavelength scale spheres.

X-ray yield enhancement from laser solid interactions has previously been demonstrated for a variety of coating and target preparations. We investigate an additional method for enhancing the x-ray yield and possibly temperature relying on the field enhancement around a sphere as calculated using the Mie theory. We deposited uniform sized polystyrene spheres on a glass substrate. We irradiated the target with 15 mJ of 400 nm 100fs laser light focused to an intensity of approximately 10$^{17}$ W/cm$^{2}$. We observed an increase two orders of magnitude in x-ray yield from the sphere covered glass as compared to the plain uncoated glass.