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X-ray science

X-ray FEL shines brightly

Nature Photonics volume 4, pages 589–591 (2010)Cite this article

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The Linac Coherent Light Source at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in the USA is producing coherent soft and hard X-rays at a brightness nearly ten orders of magnitude larger than synchrotron sources, heralding a new era in ultrafast science.

The LCLS has the potential not only to perform X-ray diffraction on the same timescale as structural dynamics, but also (when coupled with conventional laser sources) for use in ultrafast X-ray pump–probe experiments. The intensity of the X-ray photon pulses also offers the prospect for single-shot X-ray diffraction experiments, in which a high photon flux generates a diffraction image before the sample has time to respond or be destroyed1. The LCLS also offers a raft of scientific possibilities when operated in the soft X-ray regime, such as the exploration of inner-shell ionization dynamics, as recently reported by Young et al. in one of the first end-user science publications from the LCLS2.

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Figure 1: Schematic of the phase-matched radiation and electron motion through the FEL undulator.

References

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  1. Steven Jamison is at the Accelerator Science and Technology Centre, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Daresbury WA4 4AD, UK. steven.jamison@stfc.ac.uk,

    Steven Jamison

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  1. Steven Jamison
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Jamison, S. X-ray FEL shines brightly. Nature Photon 4, 589–591 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.210

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.210

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