MRI: Development of an Intense Table-Top Soft X-Ray Laser Source of Picosecond Pulses

9977677这个项目将开发一个桌面软X射线激光光源，可以产生持续时间为皮秒的非常强的脉冲。强软X射线相干辐射在科学技术中的重要促进作用已得到公认，并推动了大型现代同步辐射设施的发展。最近的进展使开发紧凑的桌面软X射线激光辐射源成为可能，其空间相干平均功率类似于同步加速器光束线，峰值功率高出五个数量级以上。这种台式光源将使更广泛的软X射线辐射束得到更广泛的应用，并使新科学能够获得目前无法获得的极高软X射线峰值强度，从而极大地影响国家研究基础设施。该项目将开发一种基于我们实验室开发的毛细管放电和高强度超短脉冲光学激光技术的新型强大台式软X射线激光器。这两项相对较新但经过验证的技术相结合，应该能够有效地产生多种波长的高度相干软X射线辐射的多兆瓦皮秒脉冲。毛细管放电等离子体波导的使用将使PI非常有效地利用激光泵浦辐射，潜在地将激光泵浦的软X射线激光器的效率提高一到两个数量级。将使拟议的研究发展成为可能的主要概念已经进行了实验测试。与工业界合作，这项拟议的开发有可能使全国范围内广泛的科学家和工程师社区能够接触到这些台式激光器。

9977677RoccaThis project will develop a table-top soft x-ray laser source of very intense pulses of picosecond duration. The important enabling role of intense soft x-ray coherent radiation in science and technology is well recognized, and has motivated the development of large modem synchrotron radiation facilities. Very recent advances now allow the possibility to develop compact table-top sources of soft x-ray laser radiation with a spatially coherent average power similar to that of a synchrotron beam line, and with more that five orders of magnitude larger peak power. Such table-top sources could greatly impact the national research infrastructure by making intense beams of soft x-ray radiation more widely available, and by enabling new science with the access to a regime of very high soft x-ray peak intensities not presently available.The project will develop a new kind of powerful table-top soft x-ray laser based in the combination of capillary discharges developed in our laboratory with high intensity ultrashort pulse optical laser technology. The combination of these two relatively new but proven technologies should allow the efficient generation of multi-Megawatt picosecond pulses of highly coherent soft x-ray radiation at a variety of soft x-ray wavelengths. The use of a capillary discharge plasma waveguide will allow the PI to make very efficient use of the laser pump radiation, potentially improving the efficiency of laser pumped collisional soft x-ray lasers by one to two orders of magnitude. The major concepts that will enable the proposed research development have been tested experimentally. The proposed development has potential, in collaboration with industry, to make these table-top lasers accessible to a broad community of scientists and engineers nationwide.***