Tunable isolated attosecond x-ray pulses with Gigawatt peak power from a free-electron laser
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The quantum mechanical motion of electrons in molecules and solids occurs on the sub-femtosecond timescale. Consequently, the study of ultrafast electronic phenomena requires thegeneration of laser pulses shorter than 1 fs and of sufficient intensity to interact with their targetwith high probability. Probing these dynamics with atomic-site specificity requires the extensionof sub-femtosecond pulses to the soft X-ray spectral region. Here we report the generation of iso-lated soft X-ray attosecond pulses with an X-ray free-electron laser. Our source has a pulse energythat is a million times larger than any other source of isolated attosecond pulses in the soft X-rayspectral region, with a peak power exceeding 100 GW. This unique combination of high intensity,high photon energy and short pulse duration enables the investigation of electron dynamics withX-ray non-linear spectroscopy and single-particle imaging, unlocking a path towards a new era ofattosecond science.
Date Issued
2020-01-01
Date Acceptance
2019-10-14
Citation
Nature Photonics, 2020, 14 (1), pp.30-36
ISSN
1749-4885
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
30
End Page
36
Journal / Book Title
Nature Photonics
Volume
14
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2019. The final publication is available at Springer Nature via https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0549-5
Sponsor
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Grant Number
EP/R019509/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Optics
Physics, Applied
Physics
PUMP-PROBE EXPERIMENTS
NONLINEAR OPTICS
FEMTOSECOND
SPECTROSCOPY
OPERATION
DYNAMICS
REGIME
01 Mathematical Sciences
02 Physical Sciences
Optoelectronics & Photonics
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-12-02