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arXiv · 1906.10649

Tunable Isolated Attosecond X-ray Pulses with Gigawatt Peak Power from a Free-Electron Laser

Joseph Duris·Siqi Li·Taran Driver·Elio G. Champenois·James P. MacArthur·Alberto A. Lutman·Zhen Zhang·Philipp Rosenberger·Jeff W. Aldrich·Ryan Coffee·Giacomo Coslovich·Franz-Josef Decker·James M. Glownia·Gregor Hartmann·Wolfram Helml·Andrei Kamalov·Jonas Knurr·Jacek Krzywinski·Ming-Fu Lin·Megan Nantel·Adi Natan·Jordan O'Neal·Niranjan Shivaram·Peter Walter·Anna Wang·James J. Welch·Thomas J. A. Wolf·Joseph Z. Xu·Matthias F. Kling·Philip~H. ~Bucksbaum·Alexander Zholents·Zhirong Huang·James P. Cryan·Agostino Marinelli
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Abstract

The quantum mechanical motion of electrons in molecules and solids occurs on the sub-femtosecond timescale. Consequently, the study of ultrafast electronic phenomena requires the generation of laser pulses shorter than 1 fs and of sufficient intensity to interact with their target with high probability. Probing these dynamics with atomic-site specificity requires the extension of sub-femtosecond pulses to the soft X-ray spectral region. Here we report the generation of isolated GW-scale soft X-ray attosecond pulses with an X-ray free-electron laser. Our source has a pulse energy that is six orders of magnitude larger than any other source of isolated attosecond pulses in the soft X-ray spectral region, with a peak power in the tens of gigawatts. This unique combination of high intensity, high photon energy and short pulse duration enables the investigation of electron dynamics with X-ray non-linear spectroscopy and single-particle imaging.

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Joseph Duris, Siqi Li, Taran Driver, Elio G. Champenois, James P. MacArthur, Alberto A. Lutman, Zhen Zhang, Philipp Rosenberger, Jeff W. Aldrich, Ryan Coffee, Giacomo Coslovich, Franz-Josef Decker, James M. Glownia, Gregor Hartmann, Wolfram Helml, Andrei Kamalov, Jonas Knurr, Jacek Krzywinski, Ming-Fu Lin, Megan Nantel, Adi Natan, Jordan O'Neal, Niranjan Shivaram, Peter Walter, Anna Wang, James J. Welch, Thomas J. A. Wolf, Joseph Z. Xu, Matthias F. Kling, Philip~H. ~Bucksbaum, Alexander Zholents, Zhirong Huang, James P. Cryan, Agostino Marinelli. 2019-06-25. Tunable Isolated Attosecond X-ray Pulses with Gigawatt Peak Power from a Free-Electron Laser. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-019-0549-5

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