In this thesis a fan spray nozzle design is presented that is capable of producing single micrometer thick sheets of liquid, which are stable and flat. These sheets are characterised by various interferometric techniques, and some elementary fluid dynamics calculations are employed to understand the formation of the sheet. A new experimental vacuum chamber was designed and built, and the liquid sheet jet apparatus was installed into it and run successfully in the vacuum. Soft X-ray absorption measurements were attempted, but due to problems with a lack of X-ray flux and contamination of the experimental apparatus no results have yet been obtained. The sheet was also used as a source for high harmonic generation, generating harmonics up to 50\,eV. The mechanism of high harmonic generation in the liquid is investigated, with the conclusion being reached that it is a similar mechanism to the semi-classical three step model. The effects of scattering are considered, and found to be less severe than anticipated due to correlation effects in the condensed phase.Open Acces
