skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Recent advances in ultrafast X-ray sources

Journal Article · · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. A, Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [4];  [2]
  1. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  2. Max Born Inst. for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (MBI), Berlin (Germany)
  3. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), (Germany). German Research Centre for Materials and Energy
  4. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)

Over more than a century, X-rays have transformed our understanding of the fundamental structure of matter and have been an indispensable tool for chemistry, physics, biology, materials science and related fields. Current advances in ultrafast X-ray sources operating in the femtosecond to attosecond regimes have opened an important new frontier in X-ray science. These advances now allow: (i) sensitive probing of structural dynamics in matter on the fundamental timescales of atomic motion, (ii) element-specific probing of electronic structure and charge dynamics on fundamental timescales of electronic motion, and (iii) powerful new approaches for unravelling the coupling between electronic and atomic structural dynamics that underpin the properties and function of matter. Most notable is the recent realization of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) with numerous new XFEL facilities in operation or under development worldwide. Advances in XFELs are complemented by advances in synchrotron-based and table-top laser-plasma X-ray sources now operating in the femtosecond regime, and laser-based high-order harmonic XUV sources operating in the attosecond regime. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Measurement of ultrafast electronic and structural dynamics with X-rays’.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515; FG02-99ER14982; SC0002002
OSTI ID:
1528864
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1907874; OSTI ID: 1957805
Journal Information:
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. A, Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 377, Issue 2145; ISSN 1364-503X
Publisher:
The Royal Society PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 68 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (183)

Design of fully spatially coherent extreme-ultraviolet light sources journal May 2004
Quasi-ballistic thermal transport from nanoscale interfaces observed using ultrafast coherent soft X-ray beams journal November 2009
Overview of the SACLA facility journal April 2015
Generation of femtosecond X-ray pulses via laser–electron beam interaction journal July 2000
Two-colour hard X-ray free-electron laser with wide tunability journal December 2013
Ultrafast Changes of Molecular Crystal Structure Induced by Dipole Solvation journal June 2007
Ultrafast soft-mode driven charge relocation in an ionic crystal journal January 2012
Critical behavior within 20 fs drives the out-of-equilibrium laser-induced magnetic phase transition in nickel journal March 2018
Ultrafast magnetization enhancement in metallic multilayers driven by superdiffusive spin current journal January 2012
Tomographic reconstruction of circularly polarized high-harmonic fields: 3D attosecond metrology journal February 2016
Two-colour pump–probe experiments with a twin-pulse-seed extreme ultraviolet free-electron laser journal September 2013
High-order harmonic generation from atoms and ions in the high intensity regime journal June 1992
Field-Driven Dynamics of Correlated Electrons in LiH and NaBH 4 Revealed by Femtosecond X-Ray Diffraction journal November 2013
Erratum: Non-collinear generation of angularly isolated circularly polarized high harmonics journal January 2016
SwissFEL: The Swiss X-ray Free Electron Laser journal July 2017
Multicolor Operation and Spectral Control in a Gain-Modulated X-Ray Free-Electron Laser journal September 2013
Generalized phase-matching conditions for high harmonics: The role of field-gradient forces journal April 1997
Ultrafast large-amplitude relocation of electronic charge in ionic crystals journal March 2012
Theoretical analysis of hard x-ray generation by nonperturbative interaction of ultrashort light pulses with a metal journal March 2015
Towards shot-noise limited diffraction experiments with table-top femtosecond hard x-ray sources journal September 2017
A new regime of nanoscale thermal transport: Collective diffusion increases dissipation efficiency journal March 2015
Photoinduced demagnetization and insulator-to-metal transition in ferromagnetic insulating BaFeO$_3$ thin films text January 2015
Seeded X-ray free-electron laser generating radiation with laser statistical properties journal October 2018
Generation of 11-fs pulses from a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser journal January 1993
Comparison of focusing optics for femtosecond X-ray diffraction journal April 2005
Femtosecond and Subfemtosecond X-Ray Pulses from a Self-Amplified Spontaneous-Emission–Based Free-Electron Laser journal February 2004
Measurements and Simulations of Ultralow Emittance and Ultrashort Electron Beams in the Linac Coherent Light Source journal June 2009
Microfocus Cu K_? source for femtosecond x-ray science journal January 2005
Spatiotemporal Stability of a Femtosecond Hard–X-Ray Undulator Source Studied by Control of Coherent Optical Phonons journal October 2007
Distinguishing attosecond electron–electron scattering and screening in transition metals journal June 2017
Atomic scale temporal structure inherent to high-order harmonic generation journal July 1993
Generation of ultrashort Kα radiation from quasipoint interaction area of femtosecond pulses with thin foils journal June 2005
Quasi-phase matching of high-harmonics and attosecond pulses in modulated waveguides journal January 2000
Isolated attosecond pulse generation using multicycle pulses directly from a laser amplifier journal April 2010
Bright Coherent Ultrahigh Harmonics in the keV X-ray Regime from Mid-Infrared Femtosecond Lasers journal June 2012
Laser-assisted photoemission from surfaces conference May 2007
Demonstration of self-seeding in a hard-X-ray free-electron laser journal August 2012
Magnetic vortex cores as tunable spin-wave emitters journal July 2016
High-Order Harmonic Generation in Aligned Molecules journal October 2001
Attosecond spectroscopy in condensed matter journal October 2007
Construction and Commissioning of PAL-XFEL Facility journal May 2017
Coupled Ultrafast Lattice and Polarization Dynamics in Ferroelectric Nanolayers journal June 2007
Generation of high energy 10 fs pulses by a new pulse compression technique journal May 1996
Three-Dimensional Analysis of Coherent Amplification and Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission in Free-Electron Lasers journal October 1986
Spin angular momentum and tunable polarization in high-harmonic generation journal June 2014
Generation of transform-limited 32-fs pulses from a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser journal January 1992
Lorentz drift compensation in high harmonic generation in the soft and hard X-ray regions of the spectrum journal January 2016
Pseudo-Single-Bunch with Adjustable Frequency: A New Operation Mode for Synchrotron Light Sources journal December 2012
Generation of intense uv radiation by subharmonically seeded single-pass free-electron lasers journal October 1991
Subwavelength coherent imaging of periodic samples using a 13.5 nm tabletop high-harmonic light source journal March 2017
Spectro-temporal shaping of seeded free-electron laser pulses text January 2015
Steady-State Far-Infrared Coherent Synchrotron Radiation detected at BESSY II journal June 2002
Generation of Bright Isolated Attosecond Soft X-Ray Pulses Driven by Multi-Cycle Mid-Infrared Lasers text January 2014
Direct observation of electron propagation and dielectric screening on the atomic length scale journal January 2015
Studies of multiphoton production of vacuum-ultraviolet radiation in the rare gases journal January 1987
Quasi-phase-matched generation of coherent extreme-ultraviolet light journal January 2003
Stimulated Emission of Bremsstrahlung in a Periodic Magnetic Field journal April 1971
Proposal for Intense Attosecond Radiation from an X-Ray Free-Electron Laser journal June 2004
Quasi-phase-matching and quantum-path control of high-harmonic generation using counterpropagating light journal February 2007
High-brightness table-top hard X-ray source driven by sub-100-femtosecond mid-infrared pulses journal November 2014
Femtosecond powder diffraction with a laser-driven hard X-ray source journal January 2010
Generation of Femtosecond Pulses of Synchrotron Radiation journal March 2000
Few-femtosecond time-resolved measurements of X-ray free-electron lasers journal April 2014
Attosecond control of electronic processes by intense light fields journal February 2003
A transient analysis of a bunched beam free electron laser
  • Wang, Jiunn-Ming; Yu, Li-Hua
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 250, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-9002(86)90928-9
journal September 1986
Polarization-dependent high-order two-color mixing journal May 1995
Threshold studies of the microwave instability in electron storage rings journal October 2010
Probing the timescale of the exchange interaction in a ferromagnetic alloy journal March 2012
Coherent superposition of laser-driven soft-X-ray harmonics from successive sources journal November 2007
Femtosecond hard X-ray plasma sources with a kilohertz repetition rate journal March 2009
First operation of a free-electron laser generating GW power radiation at 32 nm wavelength journal November 2005
Not-so-resonant, resonant absorption journal July 1987
A new possibility for production of sub-picosecond x-ray pulses using a time dependent radio frequency orbit deflection journal October 2015
Photoinduced Demagnetization and Insulator-to-Metal Transition in Ferromagnetic Insulating BaFeO 3 Thin Films journal June 2016
Size-Dependent Ultrafast Ionization Dynamics of Nanoscale Samples in Intense Femtosecond X-Ray Free-Electron-Laser Pulses journal June 2012
Generation of Isolated Attosecond Pulses with 20 to 28 Femtosecond Lasers journal October 2009
The FERMI free-electron lasers journal April 2015
First lasing and operation of an ångstrom-wavelength free-electron laser journal August 2010
Macroscopic electric polarization and microscopic electron dynamics: Quantitative insight from femtosecond x-ray diffraction journal August 2018
Generation of bright isolated attosecond soft X-ray pulses driven by multicycle midinfrared lasers journal May 2014
Ultrafast inter-ionic charge transfer of transition-metal complexes mapped by femtosecond X-ray powder diffraction journal April 2013
60-fsec pulse generation from a self-mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser journal January 1991
Generation of 21-fs millijoule-energy pulses by use of Ti:sapphire journal January 1994
Generation of Coherent X-rays in the Water Window Using 5-Femtosecond Laser Pulses journal October 1997
Compression of amplified chirped optical pulses journal December 1985
Experimental Demonstration of a Soft X-Ray Self-Seeded Free-Electron Laser journal February 2015
Experimental Demonstration of Femtosecond Two-Color X-Ray Free-Electron Lasers journal March 2013
Laser-assisted photoemission from surfaces journal February 2008
Multiple-harmonic conversion of 1064 nm radiation in rare gases journal February 1988
High power ultrafast lasers journal March 1998
Coherent control with a short-wavelength free-electron laser journal February 2016
Fully Spatially Coherent High Harmonic Beams in the keV Region of the Spectrum conference January 2012
Plasma perspective on strong field multiphoton ionization journal September 1993
Generating Single-Spike Hard X-Ray Pulses with Nonlinear Bunch Compression in Free-Electron Lasers journal October 2017
High-intensity double-pulse X-ray free-electron laser journal March 2015
Three-dimensional analysis of harmonic generation in high-gain free-electron lasers journal November 2000
Femtosecond X-Ray Pulses of Synchrotron Radiation journal February 1996
Analysis of the halo background in femtosecond slicing experiments journal April 2016
Polarization control of isolated high-harmonic pulses journal April 2018
Ultrafast X-ray Pulses from Laser-Produced Plasmas journal February 1991
Quasi-ballistic thermal transport from nanoscale interfaces observed using ultrafast coherent soft x-ray beams conference February 2011
Ultrafast lattice response of photoexcited thin films studied by X-ray diffraction journal November 2014
Generation of Coherent 19- and 38-nm Radiation at a Free-Electron Laser Directly Seeded at 38 nm journal September 2013
Nondestructive Measurement of the Evolution of Layer-Specific Mechanical Properties in Sub-10 nm Bilayer Films journal July 2016
Compression of high-energy laser pulses below 5 fs journal January 1997
Direct time-domain observation of attosecond final-state lifetimes in photoemission from solids journal June 2016
Tracking the picosecond deactivation dynamics of a photoexcited iron carbene complex by time-resolved X-ray scattering journal January 2018
Hard X-ray free-electron laser with femtosecond-scale timing jitter journal October 2017
Collective instabilities and high-gain regime in a free electron laser journal July 1984
Observation of Laser-Assisted Auger Decay in Argon journal October 1994
Low loss silica hollow core fibers for 3–4 μm spectral region journal January 2012
Generation of Bright Isolated Attosecond Soft X-Ray Pulses Driven by Multi-Cycle Mid-Infrared Lasers conference January 2014
A soft X-ray free-electron laser beamline at SACLA: the light source, photon beamline and experimental station journal January 2018
Commissioning of a multi-beamline femtoslicing facility at SOLEIL journal February 2018
An introduction to the special issue on X-ray free-electron lasers journal April 2015
Spectrotemporal Shaping of Seeded Free-Electron Laser Pulses journal September 2015
Attosecond time–energy structure of X-ray free-electron laser pulses journal March 2018
Coherent control with a short-wavelength Free Electron Laser text January 2017
Multiple-harmonic generation in rare gases at high laser intensity journal June 1989
FemtoSpeX: a versatile optical pump–soft X-ray probe facility with 100 fs X-ray pulses of variable polarization journal August 2014
Operation of a free-electron laser from the extreme ultraviolet to the water window journal June 2007
The rotating-crystal method in femtosecond X-ray diffraction journal January 2011
Shaped-pulse optimization of coherent emission of high-harmonic soft X-rays journal July 2000
Fresh-slice multicolour X-ray free-electron lasers journal October 2016
The attosecond nonlinear optics of bright coherent X-ray generation journal November 2010
Sub-picosecond optical pulses at the SLS storage ring conference January 2001
Theory of high-harmonic generation by low-frequency laser fields journal March 1994
Full Characterization of the Mechanical Properties of 11–50 nm Ultrathin Films: Influence of Network Connectivity on the Poisson’s Ratio journal March 2017
Observation of Broadband Self-Amplified Spontaneous Coherent Terahertz Synchrotron Radiation in a Storage Ring journal November 2002
Laser-Assisted Photoelectric Effect from Surfaces journal September 2006
Two-stage seeded soft-X-ray free-electron laser journal October 2013
Observation of a Train of Attosecond Pulses from High Harmonic Generation journal June 2001
Concerted electron and proton transfer in ionic crystals mapped by femtosecond x-ray powder diffraction journal August 2010
Ultrafast inter-ionic charge transfer of transition-metal complexes mapped by femtosecond x-ray powder diffraction other January 2013
Seeded X-ray free-electron laser generating radiation with laser statistical properties text January 2018
Highly coherent and stable pulses from the FERMI seeded free-electron laser in the extreme ultraviolet journal September 2012
Calculations of Multiple-Harmonic Conversion of 1064-nm Radiation in Xe journal January 1989
Intensity-dependent phase-matching effects in harmonic generation journal January 1995
Femtosecond Undulator Radiation from Sliced Electron Bunches journal August 2006
Ultra-short Pulses of Synchrotron Radiation on Storage Rings journal May 1999
Linac Coherent Light Source: The first five years journal March 2016
Spectroscopic and laser characteristics of Ti:Al_2O_3 journal January 1986
Tunable high harmonic generation with an optical parametric amplifier journal June 2002
High-Harmonic Generation of Attosecond Pulses in the “Single-Cycle” Regime journal February 1997
X-ray FEL with a meV bandwidth
  • Saldin, E. L.; Schneidmiller, E. A.; Shvyd'ko, Yu. V.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 475, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(01)01539-X
journal December 2001
Shift-current-induced strain waves in LiNbO 3 mapped by femtosecond x-ray diffraction journal September 2016
Generation of Phase-Locked Pulses from a Seeded Free-Electron Laser journal January 2016
A new regime of nanoscale thermal transport: collective diffusion counteracts dissipation inefficiency text January 2014
Optimizing High Harmonic Generation in Absorbing Gases: Model and Experiment journal February 1999
Coherent Atomic Motions in a Nanostructure Studied by Femtosecond X-ray Diffraction journal December 2004
Attosecond time–energy structure of X-ray free-electron laser pulses text January 2018
Subfemtosecond pulses journal January 1994
Electron Transfer in a Virtual Quantum State of LiBH 4 Induced by Strong Optical Fields and Mapped by Femtosecond X-Ray Diffraction journal October 2012
PAL-XFEL soft X-ray scientific instruments and X-ray optics: First commissioning results journal May 2018
Polarization control in an X-ray free-electron laser journal May 2016
Helicity-selective phase-matching and quasi-phase matching of circularly polarized high-order harmonics: towards chiral attosecond pulses journal May 2016
Scaling of Wave-Packet Dynamics in an Intense Midinfrared Field journal January 2007
Extended phase matching of high harmonics driven by mid-infrared light journal January 2008
High-Gain Harmonic-Generation Free-Electron Laser journal August 2000
Ultraviolet surprise: Efficient soft x-ray high-harmonic generation in multiply ionized plasmas journal December 2015
A compact X-ray free-electron laser emitting in the sub-ångström region journal June 2012
Multidimensional high harmonic spectroscopy journal July 2015
Soft-mode driven polarity reversal in ferroelectrics mapped by ultrafast x-ray diffraction journal March 2018
High-order Harmonic-generation cutoff journal November 1993
Generation of subpicosecond X-ray pulses using RF orbit deflection
  • Zholents, A.; Heimann, P.; Zolotorev, M.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 425, Issue 1-2, p. 385-389 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-9002(98)01372-2
journal April 1999
Observation of Laser Assisted Photoelectric Effect and Femtosecond High Order Harmonic Radiation journal April 1996
Temporal phase control of soft-x-ray harmonic emission journal July 1998
Quasi-isochronous storage ring
  • Pellegrini, Claudio; Robin, David
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 301, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-9002(91)90734-8
journal February 1991
Phase matching of high harmonic generation in the soft and hard X-ray regions of the spectrum journal June 2009
530 W, 13 mJ, four-channel coherently combined femtosecond fiber chirped-pulse amplification system journal January 2013
Low-α Operation of BESSY II and Future Plans for an Alternating Bunch Length Scheme BESSY VSR journal May 2013
Proposed UV FEL user facility at BNL
  • Ben-Zvi, I.; Di Mauro, L. F.; Krinsky, S.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 304, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-9002(91)90845-H
journal July 1991
Bright circularly polarized soft X-ray high harmonics for X-ray magnetic circular dichroism journal November 2015
Phase Matching of High-Order Harmonics in Hollow Waveguides journal September 1999
Phase-Matched Generation of Coherent Soft X-rays journal May 1998
High resolution atomic core level spectroscopy with laser harmonics journal August 1994
5  μm few-cycle pulses with multi-gigawatt peak power at a 1  kHz repetition rate journal January 2017
First Operation of a Free-Electron Laser journal April 1977
Characterizing isolated attosecond pulses from hollow-core waveguides using multi-cycle driving pulses journal January 2009
Compression of amplified chirped optical pulses journal October 1985
Femtosecond X-ray diffraction maps field-driven charge dynamics in ionic crystals journal January 2014
Experimental Demonstration of Enhanced Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission by an Optical Klystron journal January 2015
Enhanced High-Harmonic Generation Using 25 fs Laser Pulses journal January 1996

Cited By (8)

X-ray harmonic generation by orthogonally polarized two-color fields: Spectral shape and polarization journal September 2019
Time-resolved diffraction with an optimized short pulse laser plasma X-ray source journal January 2020
A compact, turnkey, narrow-bandwidth, tunable, and high-photon-flux extreme ultraviolet source journal April 2020
Attosecond Pulse Amplification in a Plasma-Based X-Ray Laser Dressed by an Infrared Laser Field journal December 2019
Laser-slicing at a low-emittance storage ring journal August 2019
Photoinduced bond oscillations in ironpentacarbonyl give delayed synchronous bursts of carbonmonoxide release journal March 2022
Analytical theory of sub-fs pulse formation in a seeded hydrogen-like plasma-based X-ray laser dressed by an infrared field text January 2019
Attosecond pulse formation in the "water window" range by optically dressed hydrogen-like plasma-based C5+ X-ray laser text January 2020

Similar Records

Roadmap of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics
Journal Article · Tue Jan 09 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Journal of Physics. B, Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics · OSTI ID:1528864

Basic Energy Sciences Roundtable: Opportunities for Basic Research at the Frontiers of XFEL Ultrafast Science
Technical Report · Wed Oct 25 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · OSTI ID:1528864

The DREAM Endstation at the Linac Coherent Light Source
Journal Article · Wed Oct 19 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Applied Sciences · OSTI ID:1528864