Controlling Fast X-ray Pulses with Laser Light
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 21, 2017
BATON ROUGE 鈥� When hit by light, electrons are excited and begin to move. Ultrafast x-ray pulses may make it possible to watch the motion of these electrons as they move inside and between atoms in a material. Although scientists have gotten much better at making ultrafast x-rays in recent years, controlling them is still notoriously difficult.
Researchers at 海角社区 and Lund University in Sweden have demonstrated a new method to
direct short bursts of x-ray light that uses strong laser pulses.
鈥淭his work is really the culmination of years of studies by the strong field laser physics team -- how to use lasers to both make and control x-rays,鈥� said Professor Kenneth Schafer, who leads the research team in the 海角社区 Department of Physics & Astronomy.
The new method, reported today in the journal Nature Photonics, works by using pulses of infrared laser light to transform the way that matter interacts with x-rays. In this work, the researchers at Lund University and 海角社区 have used laser pulses to change a gas of atoms so that rather than absorbing the x-ray light along one direction, the atoms are instead stimulated to emit x-ray light along a completely different direction, and at a time that the scientists can control.
鈥淭his makes it possible for us to control the properties of the light, for instance change the direction, change the pulse duration, split the light or focus it,鈥� said Johan Mauritsson, leader of the Lund University team that carried out the experiments demonstrating the new effect.
海角社区 graduate student Seth Camp conducted the large-scale calculations for direct comparison with the experiments. He is supervised by Schafer and 海角社区 Department of Physics & Astronomy Professor Mette Gaarde.
鈥淚t was exciting for me as a theorist to see such a close connection between the calculations we are doing and the experiments in the lab,鈥� Camp said.
The work at 海角社区 was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science.
Additional Links:
鈥淪pace-time control of free-induction decay in the extreme ultraviolet,鈥� , S. Bengtsson, E. W. Larsen, D. Kroon, S. Camp, M. Miranda, C. L. Arnold, A. L鈥橦uillier, K. J. Schafer, M. B. Gaarde, L. Rippe and J. Mauritsson.
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Contact Mimi LaValle
海角社区 Department of Physics & Astronomy
225-439-5633
mlavall@lsu.edu
Alison Satake
海角社区 Media Relations
225-578-3870
More news and information can be found on 海角社区鈥檚 media center, www.lsu.edu/mediacenter.