Seeded free-electron laser driven by a compact laser plasma accelerator
M. Labat, Jurjen Couperus Cabadağ, Amin Ghaith, Arie Irman, Anthony Berlioux, P. Berteaud, Frédéric Blache, Stefan Bock, F. Bouvet, F. Briquez, Yen-Yu Chang, S. Corde, Alexander Debus, Carlos de Oliveira, Jean-Pierre Duval, Yannick Dietrich, Moussa El Ajjouri, Christoph Eisenmann, J. Gautier, René Gebhardt, Simon Grams, Uwe Helbig, Christian Herbeaux, Nicolas Hubert, Charles Kitégi, Olena Kononenko, Michael Kuntzsch, Maxwell LaBerge, Stéphane Lê, Bruno Leluan, Alexandre Loulergue, V. Malka, F. Marteau, Manh Huy N. Guyen, Driss Oumbarek Espinós, Richard Pausch, Damien Pereira, Thomas Püschel, Jean-Paul Ricaud, Patrick Rommeluère, Eléonore Roussel, Pascal Rousseau, Susanne Schöbel, Mourad Sebdaoui, Klaus Steiniger, Keihan Tavakoli, C. Thaury, Patrick Ufer, Mathieu Valléau, Marc Vandenberghe, J. Vétéran, U. Schramm, Marie-Emmanuelle Couprie
Abstract
Abstract Free-electron lasers generate high-brilliance coherent radiation at wavelengths spanning from the infrared to the X-ray domains. The recent development of short-wavelength seeded free-electron lasers now allows for unprecedented levels of control on longitudinal coherence, opening new scientific avenues such as ultra-fast dynamics on complex systems and X-ray nonlinear optics. Although those devices rely on state-of-the-art large-scale accelerators, advancements on laser-plasma accelerators, which harness gigavolt-per-centimetre accelerating fields, showcase a promising technology as compact drivers for free-electron lasers. Using such footprint-reduced accelerators, exponential amplification of a shot-noise type of radiation in a self-amplified spontaneous emission configuration was recently achieved. However, employing this compact approach for the delivery of temporally coherent pulses in a controlled manner has remained a major challenge. Here we present the experimental demonstration of a laser-plasma accelerator-driven free-electron laser in a seeded configuration, where control over the radiation wavelength is accomplished. Furthermore, the appearance of interference fringes, resulting from the interaction between the phase-locked emitted radiation and the seed, confirms longitudinal coherence. Building on our scientific achievements, we anticipate a navigable pathway to extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths, paving the way towards smaller-scale free-electron lasers, unique tools for a multitude of applications in industry, laboratories and universities.