Coherent sub-femtosecond soft x-ray free-electron laser pulses with nonlinear compression
Eduard Prat, Alexander Malyzhenkov, Christopher Arrell, P. Craievich, S. Reiche, Thomas Schietinger, Guanglei Wang
Abstract
We demonstrate the generation of coherent soft x-ray free-electron laser (FEL) pulses with a duration below 1 fs using nonlinear compression with a low-charge electron beam (10 pC). The approach is simple, and it does not require any special hardware, so it can be readily implemented at any x-ray FEL facility. We present temporal and spectral diagnostics confirming the production of single-spike sub-femtosecond pulses for photon energies of 642 and 1111 eV. Our work will be important for ultrafast FEL applications requiring soft x-rays.
Topics & Concepts
FemtosecondLaserPhysicsUltrashort pulseOpticsFree-electron laserElectronFree electron modelLinear particle acceleratorCathode rayPhotonX-rayAtomic physicsBeam (structure)Nuclear physicsAdvanced X-ray Imaging TechniquesParticle Accelerators and Free-Electron LasersLaser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics