Seeded free-electron laser driven by a compact laser plasma accelerator

Marie Labat (1) , Jurjen Couperus Cadabag (2) , Amin Ghaith (1) , Arie Irman , Anthony Berlioux , Philippe Berteaud (1) , Frédéric Blache , Stefan Bock , François Bouvet (1) , Fabien Briquez (1) , Yen-Yu Chang , Sébastien Corde (3) , Alexander Debus (4) , Carlos de Oliveira , Jean-Pierre Duval (1) , Yannick Dietrich (1) , Moussa El Ajjouri , Christoph Eisenmann , Julien Gautier (3) , René Gebhardt , Simon Grams , Uwe Helbig , Christian Herbeaux , Nicolas Hubert , Charles Kitegi , Olena Kononenko (3) , Michael Kuntzsch , Maxwell Laberge , Stéphane Lé , Bruno Leluan , Alexandre Loulergue , Victor Malka (5) , Fabrice Marteau , Manh Huy N Guyen , Driss Oumbarek-Espinos , Richard Pausch , Damien Pereira , Thomas Püschel , Jean-Paul Ricaud , Patrick Rommeluere , Eléonore Roussel (6, 7) , Pascal Rousseau (3) , Susanne Schöbel , Mourad Sebdaoui , Klaus Steiniger , Keihan Tavakoli , Cedric Thaury (3) , Patrick Ufer , Mathieu Valléau , Marc Vandenberghe , José Vétéran , Ulrich Schramm , Marie Couprie (1)

1 SSOLEIL - Synchrotron SOLEIL
2 HZDR - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
3 LOA - Laboratoire d'optique appliquée
4 Institute of Radiation Physics [Dresden]
5 Weizmann Institute of Science [Rehovot, Israël]
6 DYSCO - DYnamique des Systèmes COmplexes
7 PhLAM - Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, Atomes et Molécules - UMR 8523

Free-electron lasers generate high-brilliance coherent radiation at wavelengths spanning from the infrared to the X-ray domains. The recent development of short-wavelength seeded free-electron lasers now allows for unprecedented levels of control on longitudinal coherence[1], opening new scientific avenues as ultra-fast dynamics on complex systems and X-ray nonlinear optics. While those devices rely on state-of-the-art large-scale accelerators, advancements on laser-plasma accelerators, which harness giga-volt-per-centimeter accelerating fields, showcase a promising technology as compact drivers for free-electron lasers. Using such miniaturized accelerators, exponential amplification of a shot-noise type of radiation in a self-amplified spontaneous emission configuration was recently achieved [2]. However, employing this compact approach for the delivery of temporally coherent pulses in a controlled manner remained a major challenge. Here, we present the experimental demonstration of a laser-plasma accelerator driven free-electron laser in a seeded configuration, where control over the radiation wavelength is accomplished. Furthermore, the appearance of interference fringes, resulting from the interaction between the phase-locked emitted radiation and the seed, confirms longitudinal coherence. Building on our scientific achievements, we anticipate a straightforward scaling to extreme-ultraviolet wavelengths, paving the way towards university-scale free-electron lasers, unique tools for a multitude of applications. [1] Meyer, M. FELs of europe: Whitebook on science with free electron lasers 8–19 (2016). [2] Wang, W. et al. Free-electron lasing at 27 nanometres based on a laser wakefield accelerator.

Domaines: Physique [physics]

Marie Labat, Jurjen Couperus Cadabag, Amin Ghaith, Arie Irman, Anthony Berlioux, et al.. Seeded free-electron laser driven by a compact laser plasma accelerator. 2022. ⟨hal-03865214⟩