Generating intense fully coherent soft x-ray radiation based on a laser-plasma accelerator

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Accelerator Physics
• Plasma Physics

Background:

• Laser-plasma accelerators offer compact and cost-effective X-ray light sources.
• Large energy spread in accelerated electron beams limits short-wavelength free-electron laser generation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a novel method for imprinting coherent micro-bunching on electron beams with large energy spread.
• To enable the generation of high-power, fully coherent femtosecond soft X-ray radiation.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a wavefront-tilted conventional optical laser beam.
• Employing a weak dipole magnet to induce micro-bunching.
• Theoretical analysis and numerical simulations.

Main Results:

• Successfully demonstrated the imprinting of strong coherent micro-bunching on electron beams.
• Achieved generation of fully coherent femtosecond soft X-ray radiation at gigawatt levels.
• Confirmed the effectiveness with a very short undulator.

Conclusions:

• The proposed technique effectively overcomes the challenge of large energy spread in laser-plasma accelerated electron beams.
• This method paves the way for compact, high-brightness X-ray free-electron lasers.
• Enables university-laboratory scale advanced X-ray light sources.