Abstract
The physical and technological challenges of FELs become quite demanding with decreasing wavelength, but in recent years X-ray FELs with wavelengths in the Ångstrøm regime (1 Å \(=\) 0.1 nm \(=\,10^{-10}\,\)m) have become a reality with the successful commissioning and operation of the “Linac Coherent Light Source” LCLS [1], the world’s first FEL providing atomic resolution. In this chapter, we discuss the most important aspects and challenges of X-ray FELs and present some of the excellent experimental results achieved at LCLS and the second facility of this kind, the “Spring-8 Angstrom Compact free-electron LAser” SACLA [2]. Low-gain FEL oscillators in the X-ray regime have been proposed [3] but not yet demonstrated, they are not considered here. Comprehensive information and technical details on X-ray FELs are found in the design reports of LCLS [4] and the European XFEL [5]. Further valuable information is presented in a review article by Huang and Kim [6].
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Making the first undulator section longer than the SASE saturation length has a serious disadvantage: the electron bunches acquire a large energy spread in the saturated SASE process which in turn impedes the seeded FEL gain in the second undulator section.
- 2.
Note that the electron transit time has nothing to do with the time duration of the spontaneous radiation pulse which is in \(10\)–\(100\) fs range just like the FEL pulse.
- 3.
The rather tight collimation of the first harmonic of undulator radiation given in Eq. (2.26) is due to the requirement that the angle-dependent wavelength shift stays within the spectral bandwidth observed in forward direction. Dropping this requirement a large amount of radiation is found at substantially larger angles.
References
P. Emma et al., First lasing and operation of an ångstrom-wavelength free-electron laser. Nat. Photonics 4, 641 (2010)
T. Ishikawa et al., A compact X-ray free-electron laser emitting in the sub-ångström region. Nat. Photonics 6, 540 (2012)
R. Colella, A. Luccio, Proposal for a free electron laser in the X-ray region. Opt. Commun. 50, 41 (1984)
J. Arthur et al., Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Conceptual Design Report, Report SLAC-R-593, Menlo Park (2002)
R. Brinkmann et al., XFEL: The European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser. Technical design report, Report DESY-06-097, Hamburg (2006)
Z. Huang, K.-J. Kim, Review of x-ray free-electron laser theory. Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 10, 034801 (2007)
H. Wiedemann, Synchrotron Radiation (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2003)
W. Ackermann et al., Operation of a free-electron laser from the extreme ultraviolet to the water window. Nat. Photonics 1, 336 (2007)
E. Allaria et al., Highly coherent and stable pulses from the FERMI seeded free-electron laser in the extreme ultraviolet. Nat. Photonics 6, 699 (2012)
U. Bergmann et al., Science and Technology of Future Light Sources: A White Paper, Reports ANL-08/39, BNL-81895-2008, LBNL-1090E-2009, and SLAC-R-917 (2008)
Y. Ding et al., Measurements and Simulations of Ultralow Emittance and Ultrashort Electron Beams in the Linac Coherent Light Source. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 254801 (2009)
Z. Huang et al., Measurement of femtosecond LCLS bunches using the SLAC A-Line spectrometer, in Proceedings Proceedings of the 24th Particle Accelerator Conference, New York, USA, THP183 2011
Y. Ding et al., Femtosecond X-ray pulse characterization in free-electron lasers using a cross-correlation technique. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 254802 (2012)
J. Feldhaus et al., Possible application of X-ray optical elements for reducing the spectral bandwidth of an X-ray SASE FEL. Opt. Commun. 140, 341 (1997)
E.L. Saldin, E.A. Schneidmiller, Yu. Shvyd’ko, M.V. Yurkov, X-ray FEL with a meV bandwidth. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 475, 357 (2001)
G. Geloni, V. Kocharyan, E.L. Saldin, A novel self-seeding scheme for hard X-ray FELs. J. Mod. Opt. 38, 1391–1403 (2011)
J. Amann et al., Demonstration of self-seeding in a hard-X-ray free-electron laser. Nat. Photonics 6, 693–698 (2012)
C.B. Schroeder, C. Pellegrini, P. Chen, Quantum effects in high-gain free-electron lasers. Phys. Rev. E 64, 056502 (2001)
M. Sands, The Physics of Electron Storage Rings: An Introduction, Report SLAC-121, Menlo Park (1970)
J. Rossbach, E.L. Saldin, E.A. Schneidmiller, M.V. Yurkov, Fundamental limitations of X-ray FEL operation due to quantum fluctuations of undulator radiation. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 393, 152 (1997)
R. Bonifacio, N. Piovella, G.R.M. Robb, A. Schiavi, Quantum regime of free electron lasers starting from noise. Phys. Rev. ST Accel. Beams 9, 090701 (2008)
S. Moeller et al., Photon beamlines and diagnostics at LCLS. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 635, 6 (2010)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schmüser, P., Dohlus, M., Rossbach, J., Behrens, C. (2014). X-Ray Free-Electron Lasers: Technical Realization and Experimental Results. In: Free-Electron Lasers in the Ultraviolet and X-Ray Regime. Springer Tracts in Modern Physics, vol 258. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04081-3_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04081-3_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-04080-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-04081-3
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)