Compton Scattering and Its Applications: The PLEIADES Femtosecond X-ray Source at LLNL

Conference · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1142/9789812702333_0005· OSTI ID:15004405

Hartemann, F V; Brown, W J; Anderson, S G; Barty, C P J; Betts, S M; Booth, R; Crane, J K; Cross, R R; Fittinghoff, D N; Gibson, D J; Kuba, J; Rupp, B; Tremaine, A M; Springer, P T

Remarkable developments in critical technologies including terawatt-class lasers using chirped-pulse amplification, high brightness photoinjectors, high-gradient accelerators, and superconducting linacs make it possible to design and operate compact, tunable, subpicosecond Compton scattering x-ray sources with a wide variety of applications. In such novel radiation sources, the collision between a femtosecond laser pulse and a low emittance relativistic electron bunch in a small ({micro}m{sup 3}) interaction volume produces Doppler-upshifted scattered photons with unique characteristics: the energy is tunable in the 5-500 keV range, the angular divergence of the beam is small (mrad), and the pulses are ultrashort (10 fs - 10 ps). Two main paths are currently being followed in laboratories worldwide: high peak brightness, using ultrahigh intensity femtosecond lasers at modest repetition rates, and high average brightness, using superconducting linac and high average power laser technology at MHz repetition rates. Targeted applications range from x-ray protein crystallography and high contrast medical imaging to femtosecond pump-probe and diffraction experiments. More exotic uses of such sources include the {gamma}-{gamma} collider, NIF backlighting, nonlinear Compton scattering, and high-field QED. Theoretical considerations and experimental results will be discussed within this context.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 15004405
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-153189
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATORS
AMPLIFICATION
BRIGHTNESS
COMPTON EFFECT
CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
DESIGN
DIFFRACTION
ELECTRONS
KEV RANGE
LASERS
LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY
LINEAR ACCELERATORS
PHOTONS
PHYSICS
PROTEINS
RADIATION SOURCES
X-RAY SOURCES