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Title: Terawatt attosecond x-ray source driven by a plasma accelerator

Abstract

Plasma accelerators can generate ultra-high-brightness electron beams that open the door to light sources with a smaller physical footprint and properties un-achievable with conventional accelerator technology. In this paper, we show that electron beams from Plasma WakeField Accelerators can generate few-cycle coherent tunable soft x-ray pulses with TW peak power and a duration of tens of attoseconds, an order of magnitude more powerful, shorter, and with better stability than state-of-the-art X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs). Such a light source would significantly enhance the ability to experimentally investigate electron dynamics on ultrafast timescales, having a broad-ranging impact across multiple scientific fields. Rather than starting from noise as in typical XFELs, the x-ray emission in this approach is driven by coherent radiation from a pre-bunched, high peak current electron beam of attosecond duration. This relaxes the restrictive tolerances that have hindered progress toward utilizing plasma accelerators as coherent x-ray drivers thus far, presenting a new paradigm for advanced accelerator light source applications.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  3. Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
OSTI Identifier:
1820153
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1807532
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-76SF00515; SC0009914
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
APL Photonics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 6; Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2378-0967
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS; plasma acceleration; accelerated beams; free electron lasers; pump probe experiments; x-ray spectroscopy; coherent radiation; attosecond pulses

Citation Formats

Emma, C., Xu, X., Fisher, A., Robles, R., MacArthur, J. P., Cryan, J., Hogan, M. J., Musumeci, P., White, G., and Marinelli, A. Terawatt attosecond x-ray source driven by a plasma accelerator. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1063/5.0050693.
Emma, C., Xu, X., Fisher, A., Robles, R., MacArthur, J. P., Cryan, J., Hogan, M. J., Musumeci, P., White, G., & Marinelli, A. Terawatt attosecond x-ray source driven by a plasma accelerator. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0050693
Emma, C., Xu, X., Fisher, A., Robles, R., MacArthur, J. P., Cryan, J., Hogan, M. J., Musumeci, P., White, G., and Marinelli, A. Thu . "Terawatt attosecond x-ray source driven by a plasma accelerator". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0050693. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1820153.
@article{osti_1820153,
title = {Terawatt attosecond x-ray source driven by a plasma accelerator},
author = {Emma, C. and Xu, X. and Fisher, A. and Robles, R. and MacArthur, J. P. and Cryan, J. and Hogan, M. J. and Musumeci, P. and White, G. and Marinelli, A.},
abstractNote = {Plasma accelerators can generate ultra-high-brightness electron beams that open the door to light sources with a smaller physical footprint and properties un-achievable with conventional accelerator technology. In this paper, we show that electron beams from Plasma WakeField Accelerators can generate few-cycle coherent tunable soft x-ray pulses with TW peak power and a duration of tens of attoseconds, an order of magnitude more powerful, shorter, and with better stability than state-of-the-art X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs). Such a light source would significantly enhance the ability to experimentally investigate electron dynamics on ultrafast timescales, having a broad-ranging impact across multiple scientific fields. Rather than starting from noise as in typical XFELs, the x-ray emission in this approach is driven by coherent radiation from a pre-bunched, high peak current electron beam of attosecond duration. This relaxes the restrictive tolerances that have hindered progress toward utilizing plasma accelerators as coherent x-ray drivers thus far, presenting a new paradigm for advanced accelerator light source applications.},
doi = {10.1063/5.0050693},
journal = {APL Photonics},
number = 7,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Thu Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}

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