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Attosecond-Angstrom free-electron-laser towards the cold beam limit

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [7];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [2];  [10]
  1. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom); The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury (United Kingdom); SLAC
  2. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom); The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury (United Kingdom)
  3. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom); The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury (United Kingdom); University of Hamburg (Germany)
  4. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom); Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)
  5. University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  6. University of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States); Tech-X Corporation, Boulder, CO (United States)
  7. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  8. University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  9. The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury (United Kingdom); STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington (United Kingdom)
  10. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom); The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury (United Kingdom); Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Germany)

Electron beam quality is paramount for X-ray pulse production in free-electron-lasers (FELs). State-of-the-art linear accelerators (linacs) can deliver multi-GeV electron beams with sufficient quality for hard X-ray-FELs, albeit requiring km-scale setups, whereas plasma-based accelerators can produce multi-GeV electron beams on metre-scale distances, and begin to reach beam qualities sufficient for EUV FELs. Here we show, that electron beams from plasma photocathodes many orders of magnitude brighter than state-of-the-art can be generated in plasma wakefield accelerators (PWFAs), and then extracted, captured, transported and injected into undulators without significant quality loss. These ultrabright, sub-femtosecond electron beams can drive hard X-FELs near the cold beam limit to generate coherent X-ray pulses of attosecond-Angstrom class, reaching saturation after only 10 metres of undulator. This plasma-X-FEL opens pathways for advanced photon science capabilities, such as unperturbed observation of electronic motion inside atoms at their natural time and length scale, and towards higher photon energies.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1997347
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2004643
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 14; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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