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Laser-driven amplification of soft X-rays by parametric stimulated emission in neutral gases

Nature Physics volume 6, pages 455–461 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

We present a new method for parametric amplification of soft-X-ray radiation. The laser-driven amplifier is based on parametric stimulated emission and is seeded with high-order-harmonic radiation generated in the same medium. The exponential increase of the soft-X-ray yield with increasing atomic density is experimentally demonstrated for two different sets of laser parameters. A small-signal gain up to 8×103 is obtained in both experiments at about 40 eV in argon using 350-fs-long laser pulses and with 6-fs-long ones at about 260 eV in helium, respectively. This new scheme reduces the pumping threshold for lasing with a comparable conversion efficiency into the millijoule level, which is about two orders of magnitude smaller compared with the conventional plasma X-ray lasers. With a simple model, we can estimate the necessary experimental conditions for identifying the spectral range and the magnitude of the maximum gain, which are in reasonable agreement with our measurements.

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Figure 1: Parametric X-ray amplification.
Figure 2: XPA in argon.
Figure 3: Conversion efficiency and spectral narrowing for XPA in argon as a function of the driving laser intensity.
Figure 4: One and two-stage XPA in He.

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Acknowledgements

This study has been sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund (grants No. F016 P03), the DFG grant TR18 P10, SE 1911/1-1, and TKM grants B154-09030 and B 715-08008. E.S. acknowledges support from the FSU grant ‘ProChance 2009 A1’. The authors acknowledge access to the laser system provided by the Institute of Photonics, Vienna University of Technology and the PHELIX laser team at GSI Darmstadt.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Optics and Quantum Electronics, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany

    J. Seres, E. Seres & C. Spielmann

  2. Department of Physics I. University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany

    J. Seres & C. Spielmann

  3. GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research GmbH, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany

    D. Hochhaus, B. Ecker, D. Zimmer, V. Bagnoud & T. Kuehl

  4. Department of Physics, Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz, Staudingerweg 7, 55128 Mainz, Germany

    D. Hochhaus, B. Ecker, D. Zimmer & T. Kuehl

  5. EMMI Extreme Matter Institute, Planckstrasse 1, 64291 Darmstadt, Germany

    D. Hochhaus

  6. LASERIX-CLUPS, LPGP UMR 8578, Université Paris-Sud 11, Bat 210, 91405 Orsay, France

    D. Zimmer

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Contributions

J.S., T.K. and C.S. designed the experiments and wrote the manuscript; J.S. and E.S. carried out the soft-X-ray experiments in Vienna; J.S., D.H., B.E., D.Z. and V.B. carried out the XUV experiments in Darmstadt; J.S. supported the theory. All authors analysed the data and contributed to the completion of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to C. Spielmann.

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Seres, J., Seres, E., Hochhaus, D. et al. Laser-driven amplification of soft X-rays by parametric stimulated emission in neutral gases. Nature Phys 6, 455–461 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys1638

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