Table-top high flux femtosecond soft X-ray beamline at the advanced laser light source: New scientific and industrial applications

1895年威廉·伦琴博士发现了X射线，这是上个世纪取得重大突破的重要一步。在医学上，这为医生提供了独特的诊断和治疗工具，对我们的社会产生了重大影响。在科学研究中，X射线用于原子、分子、生物结构和材料的光谱和结构表征。今天，来自不同科学领域的研究人员，包括生物学家、化学家和物理学家，预计将使用X射线激光脉冲来探测具有高空间和高时间分辨率的动力学过程。这一探索推动了在世界各地建造X射线自由电子激光(XFEL)设施，提供高亮度的飞秒X射线激光脉冲。这种设施的缺点是，除了其数十亿欧元的巨额财政投资外，其可获得性有限，从而限制了可以进行的实验数量。利用超快激光技术，我们计划在加拿大先进激光光源(ALLS)上开发一种桌面高通量X射线激光光束线，利用高次谐波产生(HHG)过程来发射光谱扩展到千电子伏光子能量的飞秒脉冲。这种超快X射线激光光源有大量的科学应用，在原子、分子和光学物理、生物和材料科学方面具有重大科学突破的潜力。此外，我们正在与两家加拿大公司合作，Axis Photonique Inc.和ApplicedNanoTools Inc.，这是第一家制造超快X射线条纹相机的公司，以及第二家制造包括反射光栅和菲涅尔波带板的X射线光学组件的公司。通过在ALL获得独特的台式高通量软X射线激光光束线，我们的工业合作伙伴将拥有先进的测量技术，以显著改进其高价值仪器的表征和优化程序，这是他们的外国竞争对手所没有的优势。因此，它们将处于独特的制造业竞争力地位。

The discovery of X-rays in 1895 by Dr. William Roentgen has been an important step towards major breakthroughs in the last century. In medicine, this has had a major impact on our society by providing physicians with unique tools for diagnostics and treatments. In scientific research, X-rays are used for spectroscopic and structural characterization of atoms, molecules, biological structures and materials. Today, researchers from a broad diversity of scientific horizons, including biologists, chemists and physicists, are anticipating using X-ray laser pulses to probe dynamical processes with combined high spatial and high temporal resolutions. This quest motivates the construction of X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facilities around the world providing femtosecond X-ray laser pulses of high brilliance. The drawback of such facility, on top of its huge financial investment of billion of Euros, is its limited availability thus restraining the number of experiments that can be performed. Using ultrafast laser technology, we propose to develop a table-top high flux X-ray laser beamline at the Canadian Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) delivering femtosecond pulses with spectra extending to the kilo-electronvolt photon energy using the process of High Harmonic Generation (HHG). There are a large number of scientific applications for such ultrafast X-ray laser source, with potential for major scientific breakthroughs in Atomic, Molecular and Optical physics, biological and material sciences. In addition, we are collaborating with two Canadian companies, Axis Photonique Inc. and Applied Nanotools Inc., the first manufacturing ultrafast X-ray streak-camera and the second X-ray optical components including reflective gratings and Fresnel Zone Plates. By having access to the unique table-top high flux soft X-ray laser beamline at ALLS, our industrial partners will have an advanced metrology to improve significantly the characterization and optimization procedures of their high value instruments, an advantage that would not be available to their foreign competitors. Therefore, they will be in a unique position of manufacturing competitiveness.