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Photonics

A stable narrow-band X-ray laser

Nature volume 524, pages 424–425 (2015)Cite this article

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An atomic laser operating at the shortest wavelength yet achieved has been created by bombarding a copper foil with two X-ray pulses tuned to slightly different energies. The results may lead to ultrastable X-ray lasers. See Letter p.446

X-rays penetrate matter to image a system's internal 3D structure using contrast arising from spatial variations of elemental, chemical or magnetic properties. Lasers that function at X-ray wavelengths go beyond basic structure determination, because they can deliver bright pulses on ultrashort timescales to probe matter at the atomic level. This means that they can be used to characterize dynamic processes, such as chemical-bond formation, charge transfer and light-induced superconductivity, or to determine the macromolecular structure of a system without damaging it. Such lasers have been the subject of extreme fascination since physicist Theodore Maiman demonstrated1 the first laser that operated at optical wavelengths in 1960. On page 446 of this issue, Yoneda et al.2 demonstrate an atomic X-ray laser that yields a marked improvement in wavelength stability compared with X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), taking a major step towards an ångström-wavelength laser that remains in phase over its pulse duration — that is, which possesses longitudinal coherence.

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Figure 1: An atomic laser that uses copper's inner-shell electrons.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Linda Young is in the X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.,

    Linda Young

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  1. Linda Young
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Correspondence to Linda Young.

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Young, L. A stable narrow-band X-ray laser. Nature 524, 424–425 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/524424a

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