The aim of this work is to produce X-ray laser source from a plasma produced by focusing a pulsed laser beam on a solid target. Preformed Molybdenum plasma is created by using Nd:YAG laser pulses with a pulse duration 6 ns and pulse intensity 5.09x1011 W/cm2. Detailed simulations of Ni-like Mo X-ray laser media are undertaken using the EHYBRID code which is a hydrodynamic code. X-ray resonance lines between 25 &Aring / and 40 &Aring / emitted from the molybdenum plasma have been obtained and analysed. EHYBRID code also gives an information about the electron temperature, electron density, efficient ionization degree and plasma expansion distance of the Ni-like Mo X-ray laser media. An experimental set-up to produce preformed Mo plasma for x-ray laser has been designed for a future work.

In this thesis, theoretical investigation of nickel-like tin plasma is presented. X-ray production in a plasma medium produced by a laser beam is reviewed. Applications mostly, lithography are discussed. Two different schemes for x-ray lasing, namely, quasi-steady state and transient collisional excitation are explained and compared. The computer codes that are used for plasma, especially for laser produced plasma and x-ray laser including hydrodynamic codes, ray-trace codes and collisional radiative codes are discussed. The code used in this work, EHYBRID, is considered in more detail. An experimental setup which can allow x-ray lasing is designed for different plasma and laser parameters are analyzed by means of EHYBRID code. Results are briefly discussed and as a future work the realization of the related experiment is mentioned.