Improving X-Ray Lasers

 

Scientists are studying ultrafast chemical reactions, biological process and are probing the structure of material at the atomic level. They are using x-ray free-electron lasers. These create pulses of light that are very bright. Because of the way light is generated, pulses are noisy in time and frequency. This is because of a process called self-amplified spontaneous emission.  (SASE). The pulses are not sensible in the short term. This randomness is a huge obstacle for scientists. It requires high control to observe electron and structural dynamics.

The Swiss FEL have published their findings in Physical Review Letters. It was part of the "Editor's Suggestion." The Swiss have found a new way to make light neat and orderly. The Swiss used a device called the Athos beam line. They insert magnetic chicanes. These control the timing of the electron beam between modules. 

Researchers made two big discoveries. First, they created frequency combs. This is where the spectral lines and separations can be altered. The second big findings is what happened when they collapsed the frequency combs to a single ultra-bright "tooth". They were able to create high brightness, narrow bandwidth pulses. The tooth is a single spectral line with a bandwidth measuring about 1/3 of a normal XFEL pulse.

This novel method will affect fundamental physics and our understanding of matter in the future. 

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