Atomic inner-shell X-ray laser at 1.46 nanometres pumped by an X-ray free-electron laser
Abstract
Since the invention of the laser more than 50 years ago, scientists have striven to achieve amplification on atomic transitions of increasingly shorter wavelength. The introduction of X-ray free-electron lasers makes it possible to pump new atomic X-ray lasers with ultrashort pulse duration, extreme spectral brightness and full temporal coherence. Here we describe the implementation of an X-ray laser in the kiloelectronvolt energy regime, based on atomic population inversion and driven by rapid K-shell photo-ionization using pulses from an X-ray free-electron laser. We established a population inversion of the Kα transition in singly ionized neon at 1.46 nanometres (corresponding to a photon energy of 849 electronvolts) in an elongated plasma column created by irradiation of a gas medium. We observed strong amplified spontaneous emission from the end of the excited plasma. This resulted in femtosecond-duration, high-intensity X-ray pulses of much shorter wavelength and greater brilliance than achieved with previous atomic X-ray lasers. Moreover, this scheme provides greatly increased wavelength stability, monochromaticity and improved temporal coherence by comparison with present-day X-ray free-electron lasers. The atomic X-ray lasers realized here may be useful for high-resolution spectroscopy and nonlinear X-ray studies.
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Amplified spontaneous x-ray emission and stimulated resonant inelastic x-ray Raman scattering have been demonstrated in atomic Ne in the soft x-ray spectral range.
“Despite the ultrahigh intensities necessary for realizing stimulated x-ray emission (10 17 -10 18 W cm -2 in the soft and 10 19 -10 20 W cm -2 in the hard x-ray range), amplified spontaneous x-ray emission [58] and stimulated resonant inelastic x-ray Raman scattering (sRIXS) [59] have been demonstrated in atomic Ne in the soft x-ray spectral range.”
From Roadmap of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics (2018) · cites this paper as [58]
Schemes have been developed to create multipulse and polychromatic radiation, and FEL light has been used to pump atomic lasers in the x-ray region.
“Schemes have been developed to create multipulse and polychromatic radiation, and FEL light has been used to pump atomic lasers in the x-ray region [58,68].”
From Roadmap of ultrafast x-ray atomic and molecular physics (2018) · cites this paper as [58]
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- Authors
- Rohringer, N., Ryan, D., London, R. A., Purvis, M., Albert, F., Dunn, J., Bozek, J. D., Bostedt, C., Graf, A., Hill, R., Hau-Riege, S. P., & Rocca, J. J.
- Affiliations
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (US)
- Colorado State University (US)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rohringer, Nina
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2012-01
- Volume
- 481
- Issue
- 7382
- Pages
- 488-491
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2096419895
- Cited by
- 366
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 41 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 25.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Desy publication database (The Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Radiation › X-ray Spectroscopy and Fluorescence Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Atomic and Molecular Physics
- Keywords
- population inversion, K-shell photoionization, amplified spontaneous emission, femtosecond X-ray pulses, plasma column, wavelength stability, monochromaticity, temporal coherence, high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy
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