Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 10, 2026

Applying X-ray Imaging Crystal Spectroscopy for Use as a High Temperature Plasma Diagnostic
Published on: August 25, 2016
Observation and theory of X-ray mirages
Sergey Magnitskiy1, Nikolay Nagorskiy, Anatoly Faenov
1Faculty of Physics and International Laser Center of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. sergeymagnitskiy@gmail.com
Abstract:
The advent of X-ray lasers allowed the realization of compact coherent soft X-ray sources, thus opening the way to a wide range of applications. Here we report the observation of unexpected concentric rings in the far-field beam profile at the output of a two-stage plasma-based X-ray laser, which can be considered as the first manifestation of a mirage phenomenon in X-rays. We have developed a method of solving the Maxwell-Bloch equations for this problem, and find that the experimentally observed phenomenon is due to the emergence of X-ray mirages in the plasma amplifier, appearing as phase-matched coherent virtual point sources. The obtained results bring a new insight into the physical nature of amplification of X-ray radiation in laser-induced plasma amplifiers and open additional opportunities for X-ray plasma diagnostics and extreme ultraviolet lithography.
Related Concept Videos
X-ray Crystallography
Diffraction
Diffraction is the change in the direction of travel experienced by an electromagnetic wave when it encounters a physical barrier whose dimensions are comparable to those of the wavelength of the light. X-rays are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths about as long as the distance between neighboring...
Interference and Diffraction
X-ray Imaging
Determination of Crystal Structures
The Wave Nature of Light
Actor-Observer Effect

