Polychromatic X-ray Beam from the Acceleration of Energetic Electrons in Ultrafast Laser-Produced Plasmas

Félicie Albert (1) , Kim Ta Phuoc (1) , Rahul Shah (1) , Frédéric Burgy (1) , Jean-Philippe Rousseau (1) , Antoine Rousse (1)

1 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée

Polychromatic beams of hard X-rays from ultrafast laser plasma interaction are studied. Just as in a conventional synchrotron, electrons are accelerated and wiggled, but on a much shorter scale of a few millimeters. By focusing a 50 TW CPA laser system (30 fs duration) onto a helium gas jet, we obtained a polychromatic collimated beam (50 mrad) of X-ray radiation in the keV range. In addition, its perfect synchronization with the laser system, its ultrafast duration (≃30 fs) and its brightness (up to 10^8 photons/shot/solid angle at 0.1% BW) will make it applicable to both X-ray science and backlighting to address laboratory astrophysics research issues.

Keywords: Ultrafast X-ray science; Laser-Plasma source; Electron acceleration

Domains: Optics [physics.optics]

Félicie Albert, Kim Ta Phuoc, Rahul Shah, Frédéric Burgy, Jean-Philippe Rousseau, et al.. Polychromatic X-ray Beam from the Acceleration of Energetic Electrons in Ultrafast Laser-Produced Plasmas. Astrophysics and Space Science, 2007, 307 (1-3), pp.329-333. ⟨10.1007/s10509-006-9280-z⟩. ⟨hal-00573706⟩