Compact high-flux hard X-ray source driven by femtosecond mid-infrared pulses at a 1 kHz repetition rate

A novel, to the best of our knowledge, table-top hard X-ray source driven by femtosecond mid-infrared pulses provides 8 keV pulses at a 1 kHz repetition rate with an unprecedented flux of up to 1.5 x 10(12) X-ray photons/s. Sub-100 fs pulses at a center wavelength of 5 mu m and multi-millijoule energy are generated in a four-stage optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier and focused onto a thin Cu tape target. Electrons are extracted from the target and accelerated in a vacuum up to 100 keV kinetic energy during the optical cycle; the electrons generate a highly stable K alpha photon flux from the target in a transmission geometry. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

A novel table-top hard X-ray source driven by femtosecond mid-infrared pulses achieves unprecedented X-ray photon flux with high stability, generating 8 keV pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate. This innovative source combines optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier and a thin Cu tape target to produce highly stable Kα photon flux.