Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 26, Pages 10516-10521Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0903748106
Keywords
coherent; ultrafast; extreme nonlinear optics
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation
- Department of Energy
- National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellows Program
- Bulgarian National Science Foundation
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We show how bright, tabletop, fully coherent hard X-ray beams can be generated through nonlinear upconversion of femtosecond laser light. By driving the high-order harmonic generation process using longer-wavelength midinfrared light, we show that, in theory, fully phase-matched frequency upconversion can extend into the hard X-ray region of the spectrum. We verify our scaling predictions experimentally by demonstrating phase matching in the soft X-ray region of the spectrum around 330 eV, using ultrafast driving laser pulses at 1.3-mu m wavelength, in an extended, high-pressure, weakly ionized gas medium. We also show through calculations that scaling of the overall conversion efficiency is surprisingly favorable as the wavelength of the driving laser is increased, making tabletop, fully coherent, multi-keV X-ray sources feasible. The rapidly decreasing microscopic single-atom yield, predicted for harmonics driven by longer-wavelength lasers, is compensated macroscopically by an increased optimal pressure for phase matching and a rapidly decreasing reabsorption of the generated X-rays.
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