Generation of Attosecond X-ray Pulses Beyond the Atomic Unit of Time Using Laser Induced Microbunching in Electron Beams
Ever since the discovery of mode-locking, efforts have been devoted to reducing the duration of laser pulses since the ultrashort pulses are critical to explore the dynamics occurred on a ever-shorter timescale. In this paper we describe a scheme that's capable of generating intense attosecond x-ray pulses with duration beyond the atomic unit of time ({approx}24 attoseconds). The scheme combines the echo-enabled harmonic generation technique with the bunch compression which allows one to generate harmonic numbers of a few hundred in a microbunched beam through up-conversion of the frequency of a UV seed laser. A few-cycle intense IR laser is used to generate the required energy chirp in the beam for bunch compression and for selection of an attosecond x-ray pulse. Using a representative realistic set of parameters, we show that 1 nm x-ray pulse with peak power of a few hundred MW and duration as short as 20 attoseconds (FWHM) can be generated from a 200 nm UV seed laser. The proposed scheme may enable the study of electronic dynamics with a resolution beyond the atomic unit of time and may open a new regime of ultrafast sciences.
- Research Organization:
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515
- OSTI ID:
- 969252
- Report Number(s):
- SLAC-PUB-13817; TRN: US1000164
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at 31st Free Electron Laser Conference FEL09, Liverpool, United Kingdom, 23-28 Aug 2009
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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