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attosecond & brilliant x-ray sources
Driving electrons to relativistic energies at high densities with controlled ultra-strong laser fields opens – for the first time – a realistic perspective for extending attosecond technology into the realm of very high, kiloelectronvolt, photon energies, i.e. to very short, sub-nanometer, wavelengths: into the regime of hard X-rays. Also, unprecedented attosecond pulse intensities may result from relativistic interactions. Three concepts exemplify this potential. The examples presented here demonstrate that high-field attosecond science may spawn a new generation of ultra-brilliant X-ray sources with unprecedented characteristics. They will open exciting prospects for science, technology and medicine. First promising steps toward the implementation of these concepts have been taken by LAP researchers.
Fig. 1. Laser-plasma-accelerated GeV-energy electron bunches can be beamed into a series of alternating magnets, called an undulator. This forces the bunch to undergo a transverse wiggling motion whilst speeding along the structure. The wiggling electrons radiate X-ray along their motion. If the electrons are injected with nearly the same speed in nearly the same direction within a small (micrometer-scaled) volume, they have the chance to eventually wiggle in unison and result in the emission of coherent, directed X-ray light. The development of such, so-called X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL) is now being pursued at SLAC at Stanford, USA and DESY at Hamburg, Germany. These kilometer-sized systems are being compressed to extensions of tens of meters in the XFEL project based on PFS-accelerated electrons at LAP.
Fig. 1. Laser-plasma-accelerated GeV-energy electron bunches can be beamed into a series of alternating magnets, called an undulator. This forces the bunch to undergo a transverse wiggling motion whilst speeding along the structure. The wiggling electrons radiate X-ray along their motion. If the electrons are injected with nearly the same speed in nearly the same direction within a small (micrometer-scaled) volume, they have the chance to eventually wiggle in unison and result in the emission of coherent, directed X-ray light. The development of such, so-called X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL) is now being pursued at SLAC at Stanford, USA and DESY at Hamburg, Germany. These kilometer-sized systems are being compressed to extensions of tens of meters in the XFEL project based on PFS-accelerated electrons at LAP.