laser-driven x-ray sources: realization and future trends · laser-driven x-ray sources:...

Laser-driven X-ray sources: realization and future trends

Patrick Audebert, Julien Gautier, Fabien Quéré, Rodrigo Lopez-Martens, Le Thi Thu Thuy, Philippe Martin, Hamed Merdji, Pascal Monot,

Eduardo Oliva, David Ros, Antoine Rousse, Stéphane Sebban, Kim Ta Phuoc, Sophia Chen and Philippe Zeitoun

ELI-NP Experimental program workshop, Bucharest 2012

Panorama of available laser-driven X-ray sources

101 102 103 104 105 106 E (eV)

102 101 100 1 Å 10-2 l (nm) 10-1

FERMI, FLASH LCLS, SACLA


Why X-ray sources for ELI-Nuclear Physics?

The idea of generating x ray lasers dates back to the 1970s, when scientists

realized that laser beams amplified with ions would have much higher energies than

beams amplified using gases.

Nuclear explosions were considered as a power supply for these high-energy

lasers. This became a reality at the time of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) of the

1980s, when x ray laser beams initiated by nuclear explosives possibly surrounded by

rods of titanium, palladium or tantalum were generated underground at the Nevada Test

Site. At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) the Novette laser,

precursor of the Nova laser, was used for the first laboratory demonstration of an x ray

laser in 1984.

A nuclear isomer is a long lived excited state of the nucleus. Its decay to the

nuclear ground state is inhibited. An isomer thus can store a large amount of energy.

Nuclear isomers with a long half life and a high energy release such as 72Hf178m

offer the

possibility to be standalone energy sources. If that energy can be controllably released

rather than gradually over time, a nuclear battery can be built. If it is instantaneously

released, it could be used as a rocket propellant or an explosive. The idea of generating

gamma ray lasers dates back to the late 1990s.

Gamma rays amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation from nuclear

isomers may become a reality as “gasers.” Lasers is an acronym standing for: light

amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation. Whereas light as electromagnetic

radiation normally involves photons with energies in the electron volts (eV) energy

range, gamma rays with a higher frequency and a shorter wave length would carry

energies in the Million electron volts (MeV) range.


The French teams at a glance

IRAMIS

LOA

LPGP

CILEX is situated in the scientific environment of :

1) French research projects: • ANR I-nano-X • ANR FEMTO-X-MAG • ANR COKKER and ROLEX • ANR ASOURIX 2) French pre-industrial projects • ASTRE 2011 3) European projects • SFINX and INREX « Joint Research Activities » in LASERLAB2 and 3

ISMO

LASERIX

LOA

LULI

DAM

CELIA


Apollon 10P Laser

Short focal area

X-rays within CILEX/APOLLON project

X-rays may be either developed on short and long focal areas. Short focal area - allows performing

most proposed experiments,

- reduces the cost by sharing equipment

- and enables pump-probe experiments in radio-protected area.


The Betatron source

Main pulse

1 m

Plasma mirrors and beam diagnostics

Catwalk for chamber access

~ .5 mSwitch out for circular polarization

S. Fourmeau et al, NJP2010


20 TW laser

Rousse et al, 2005

100 TW laser

g-ray Compton scattering

Ma

in S

ho

rt p

uls

e b

ea

m

2nd short pulse beam

(a) (b)

(c)Main pulse

1 m





High harmonics on solid

Main pulse

1 m




IR pulse

Attoseconde emission

detector

Rel

ativ

e C

EP

Borot et al, Nat. Phys. 2012

H16 H40

F. Quéré et al, to be published


Single attosecond pulse with high harmonics on solid

Rotating wave front

Tilted wave front

Spatially separated attosecond pulses

Naumova et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2004

l3 regime

10 as @1022 Wcm-2


The “flying mirror”

High harmonics on gas + plasma based-soft X-ray laser

Plasma mirrors

and diagnostics

> 3 m

HHG : 5 µJ, 20 fs Seeded XRL: 30 µJ, 80 fs


T. Ditmire et al, PRA, 1995

Amplified seed

coherent

<1 µJ

ASE

incoherent

~ 5 mJ

Time-resolved laser emission @ 25.1 nm


Amplification of femtosecond vs picosecond soft x-ray seeds

Femtosecond seed picosecond seed

X-ray Chirped Pulse Amplification

Pre-

High Gain (transient scheme)

Low Gain, High E (QSS)

HHG

IR LASER

10 J

100 J

1 mJ ~ 150 fs

2 mJ ~ 200 ps

Gamma-rays


O. Oliva et al, to be published Nat Phot.

• g-X ray spectroscopy • pump-probe experiments • g excitation/x-ray imaging

Pushing gamma-rays to higher energies

108 to 1011( highly monochromatic, fully coherent soft x-ray photons/pulse

Thank you for your attention


Femto-magnetism

T. Wang et al, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2012

Biological femto-imaging

Mancuso et al, New Jour. Phys, 12, 035003 (2010)

10µJ (1 shot) 1,500 shots10 µJ

~ 15mJ

105 shots 0.1mJ

Requirement for nano-imaging (static or dynamic)

B. Vodungo et al, EPL 2011 , B. Vodungbo et al, Nature Comm.2012

IR laser

laser-driven x-ray sources: realization and future trends · laser-driven x-ray sources:...

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