Few-Cycle Pulse Generation in an X-Ray Free-Electron Laser

Abstract

A method is proposed to generate trains of few-cycle x-ray pulses from a Free-Electron Laser (FEL) amplifier via a compact 'afterburner' extension consisting of several few-period undulator sections separated by electron chicane delays. Simulations show that in the hard x-ray (wavelength ~0.1 nm; photon energy ~10 keV) and with peak powers approaching normal FEL saturation (GW) levels, root mean square pulse durations of 700 zeptoseconds may be obtained. This is approximately two orders of magnitude shorter than that possible for normal FEL amplifier operation. The spectrum is discretely multichromatic with a bandwidth envelope increased by approximately two orders of magnitude over un-seeded FEL amplifier operation. Such a source would significantly enhance research opportunity in atomic dynamics, and push capability towards nuclear dynamics.

References in corpus (5)

• Bright Coherent Ultrahigh Harmonics in the keV X-Ray Regime from Mid-Infrared Femtosecond Lasers
• SASE FEL with energy-chirped electron beam and its application for generation of attosecond pulses
• Coherent Electron Scattering Captured by an Attosecond Quantum Stroboscope
• Mode-Locking in a Free-Electron Laser Amplifier
• Coherent hard x-rays from attosecond pulse train-assisted harmonic generation

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Beam by design: laser manipulation of electrons in modern accelerators
• Proposal for carrier-envelope-phase stable single-cycle pulse generation in the mid-infrared - extreme-ultraviolet range
• Terawatt attosecond X-ray source driven by a plasma accelerator
• Supercontinuum and ultra-short pulse generation from nonlinear Thomson and Compton scattering
• Single-cycle attosecond pulses by Thomson backscattering of terahertz pulses
• Proposals for gain cascading in single-pass of a free-electron laser oscillator
• Attosecond Polarisation Modulation of X-ray Radiation in a Free Electron Laser
• Laser-plasma accelerator based single-cycle attosecond undulator source
• Orbit-Controlled Generation of Two-color Attosecond Mode-locked Free-electron Lasers