Ultrafast X-ray sources and applications

The recent development of ultrafast X-ray sources makes conceivable the analysis of subpicosecond transient structures. This paper describes these new techniques and reports the first experiments dedicated to the analysis of atomic motions on this time-scale.     

Ultrafast laser and amplifier sources

Received: 28 April 1997/Revised version: 15 May 1997     

基于激光驱动等离子体X光源的X射线相衬成像

为了诊断惯性约束聚变(ICF)内爆靶丸球壳的多层信息,在神光Ⅱ激光器上对激光驱动等离子体X光源的相衬成像进行了研究。利用神光Ⅱ第9路激光驱动平面Ti靶获得X光源,在10μm的针孔约束下作为次级点光源对样品成像,用X光胶片记录。成功地将相衬成像技术应用于ICF实验,综合考虑成像放大倍数、分辨力、成像衬度和抑制烧蚀碎片等因素,选择合适的实验条件,成功获得了清晰的双层内爆靶丸球壳结构,空间分辨力优于10μm。     

基于激光驱动等离子体X光源的X射线相衬成像

为了诊断惯性约束聚变（ICF）内爆靶丸球壳的多层信息,在神光Ⅱ激光器上对激光驱动等离子体X光源的相衬成像进行了研究。利用神光Ⅱ第9路激光驱动平面Ti靶获得X光源,在10 μm的针孔约束下作为次级点光源对样品成像,用X光胶片记录。成功地将相衬成像技术应用于ICF实验,综合考虑成像放大倍数、分辨力、成像衬度和抑制烧蚀碎片等因素,选择合适的实验条件,成功获得了清晰的双层内爆靶丸球壳结构,空间分辨力优于10 μm。     

PULSE Ultrafast X-ray Summer School

The Third Annual Ultrafast X-ray Summer School (UXSS 2009) was held from June 15–19, 2009, at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) and sponsored by the PULSE Institute for Ultrafast Energy Science. The summer school was a weeklong residential event that brought together about 100 students, post-doctoral researchers, and other young and established scientists from diverse backgrounds. Particular emphasis was given to new scientific opportunities enabled by the world's first hard X-ray free electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), which underwent a spectacular start-up only months before.     

X-ray variability in transient X-ray sources

Summary The X-ray variability of transient X-ray binaries is analyzed in terms of the orbital motion of the neutron star, centrifugal inhibition of accretion and of the variable moss loss rate due to activity of the optical counterpart. The systems A0535+26 and V0332+53 are studied in this respect. To speed up publication, the proofs were not sent to the authors and were supervised by the Scientific Committee.     

Ultrafast pulse sources based on multi-mode optical fibers

Ultrafast pulse sources based on multi-mode optical fibers are discussed. High-power passively mode-locked fiber lasers based on multi-mode rare-earth-doped optical fibers greatly exceed the power limitations of single-mode oscillators. Ultrafast multi-mode fiber amplifiers operating in conjunction with multi-mode oscillators provide even higher power levels, where nonlinear propagation effects enable pulse compression to below 100 fs. Multi-mode fiber oscillators can be combined with single-mode Raman-shifting fibers to produce widely wavelength-tunable sources of femtosecond pulses. Further amplification in Yb fibers allows for the generation of sub-100-fs pulses with W-level average powers.     

Ultrafast structural changes measured by time-resolved X-ray diffraction

Received: 17 April 1998/Accepted: 17 April 1998     

All-laser-driven Thomson X-ray sources

We discuss the development of a new generation of accelerator-based hard X-ray sources driven exclusively by laser light. High-intensity laser pulses serve the dual roles: first, accelerating electrons by laser-driven plasma wakefields, and second, generating X-rays by inverse Compton scattering. Such all-laser-driven X-rays have recently been demonstrated to be energetic, tunable, relatively narrow in bandwidth, short pulsed and well collimated. Such characteristics, especially from a compact source, are highly advantageous for numerous advanced X-ray applications – in metrology, biomedicine, materials, ultrafast phenomena, radiology and fundamental physics.     

Ultrafast X-ray science at the advanced light source

On May 19, 2004, 250 guests from all over the world joined the DESY research center to celebrate 40 years of research with synchrotron radiation at DESY in Hamburg. “The first measurements with the light beam from the DESY ring accelerator started in 1964. DESY was one of the seed laboratories in which the worldwide success story of research with synchrotron radiation began,” Albrecht Wagner, chairman of the DESY Board of Directors, explained in his welcoming address. “Today, more than 1,900 scientists from 31 countries come to DESY every year to carry out experiments with synchrotron radiation.”

Forty years ago, synchrotron radiation at DESY started from scratch. At the beginning of the 1960s, the radiation generated by the electrons in the bending magnets of their new 6 GeV electron synchrotron was regarded by DESY particle physicists as an unwanted, disruptive effect.     

Design considerations for table-top, laser-based VUV and X-ray free electron lasers

A recent breakthrough in laser-plasma accelerators, based upon ultrashort high-intensity lasers, demonstrated the generation of quasi-monoenergetic GeV-electrons. With future Petawatt lasers ultra-high beam currents of ∼100 kA in ∼10 fs can be expected, allowing for drastic reduction in the undulator length of free-electron-lasers (FELs). We present a discussion of the key aspects of a table-top FEL design, including energy loss and chirps induced by space-charge and wakefields. These effects become important for an optimized table-top FEL operation. A first proof-of-principle VUV case is considered as well as a table-top X-ray-FEL which may also open a brilliant light source for new methods in clinical diagnostics. PACS 41.60.Cr; 52.38.Kd     

Ultrafast Soft X-ray Probing of Gas Phase Molecular Dynamics

The molecular ability to selectively and efficiently convert sunlight into other forms of energy like heat, bond change, or charge separation is truly remarkable. The decisive steps in these transformations often happen on a femtosecond timescale and require transitions among different electronic states that violate the Born-Oppenheimer approximation (BOA) [1 W. Domcke, D. Yarkony, and H. Köppel, Conical Intersections Electronic Structure, Dynamics &; Spectroscopy, World Scientific, Singapore (2004).[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]]. Non-BOA transitions pose challenges to both theory and experiment. From a theoretical point of view, excited state dynamics and nonadiabatic transitions both are difficult problems [2 F. Plasser, Theor. Chem. Acc. 131, 233902 (2012).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 3 J. C. Tully, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 22A301 (2012).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] (see Figure 1(a)). However, the theory on non-BOA dynamics has advanced significantly over the last two decades. Full dynamical simulations for molecules of the size of nucleobases have been possible for a couple of years [4 H. R. Hudock, J. Phys. Chem. A 111, 8500–8508 (2007).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 5 J. J. Szymczak, J. Phys. Chem. A 113, 12686–12693 (2009).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] and allow predictions of experimental observables like photoelectron energy [6 S. Ullrich, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 6, 2796 (2004).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] or ion yield [7 H. Tao, J. Chem. Phys. 134, 244306 (2011).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]–9 M. Assmann, T. Weinacht, and S. Matsika, J. Chem. Phys. 144, 34301 (2016).[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]]. The availability of these calculations for isolated molecules has spurred new experimental efforts to develop methods that are sufficiently different from all optical techniques. For determination of transient molecular structure, femtosecond X-ray diffraction [10 M. P. Minitti, Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 255501 (2015).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 11 J. Küpper, Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 083002 (2014). [Google Scholar]] and electron diffraction [12 J. Yang, Nat. Commun. 7, 11232 (2016).[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]] have been implemented on optically excited molecules.     

Recent Developments in Ultrafast X-ray Techniques for Materials Science Applications

X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) offer new ways to probe the structure and dynamics of matter with unprecedented details and in ways that were previously impossible. Continued development and upgrades to existing sources, together with the upcoming commissioning of several new sources, will rapidly expand the possibilities XFELs present for materials science. In this review, we discuss some recent experiments that exploit the unique features of XFELs—coherence, brightness, and time resolution—in order to highlight the opportunities in materials science presented by these facilities.     

Ultrafast charge transfer and nuclear dynamics studied with resonant X-ray spectroscopy

In complex systems, composed from many atomic units, it is of equal importance to determine the time scales of dynamic processes and to have control at which atomic site a dynamic process was initiated. With resonant X-ray spectroscopic tools like autoionization and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, an atomically localized excited state can be created and its dynamics monitored in comparison to the ultrafast time scale of the transient core-hole resonance. With this core-hole-clock method, charge transfer dynamics of only 320±90 attoseconds could be determined for Sulphur adsorbed on the Ru(0001) surface, extending the core-hole-clock method into the range of attoseconds. Exploiting the symmetry selection rules of resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, ultrafast atomic motion can also be investigated, which changes the molecular symmetry during a transient core-excited state. With this approach the vibrational dynamics of C₂H₄ on the time scale of a Carbon 1s core-hole resonance has been investigated. PACS 73.20.Jc; 32.80.Dz; 33.20.Rm; 33.20.Tp; 33.20.Fb     

超亮X射线源与中等质量黑洞

超亮X射线源是在邻近星系中发现的一类特殊的辐射X射线的天体.它们类似银河系中的黑洞双星,但却具有更高的亮度,因此可能包含更高质量的黑洞,即所谓的中等质量黑洞.中等质量黑洞并不像恒星级质量黑洞一样,可以是大质量恒星演化末期核塌缩的产物,因此在天体物理中具有重要意义.文章描述了超亮X射线源的一些基本性质,综述了近年来对这些源多波段观测的重要结果,以及这些结果对这些天体本质的暗示.     

激光等离子体X射线源的应用

激光等离子体作为X射线光源，具有光源体积小、亮度高、脉冲短等优点。因此，激光等离子体X射线光源在时间分辨诊断测量等方面具有重要的应用。文章简单介绍了这种光源在软X射线投影光刻技术、医学成像、晶体研究以及惯性约束核聚变（ICF）研究等方面的应用。这四个方面分别属于信息，生物，材料和能源等四个科学领域。作者的目的在于让这些科研领域及其对应工业界的研究同行了解我们的工作，从而能够实现跨学科、跨领域的合作。     

Future diffusion studies with new X-ray sources

I report on two rather new applications of highly brilliant synchrotron X-radiation for studying diffusion in solids, and try to give hints on further exploitation of these achievements.     

Nonextensive thermal sources of cosmic rays

The energy spectrum of cosmic rays exhibits power-like behavior with a very characteristic ‘knee’ structure. We consider a possibility that such a spectrum could be generated by some specific nonstatistical temperature fluctuations in the source of cosmic rays with the ‘knee’ structure reflecting an abrupt change of the pattern of such fluctuations. This would result in a generalized nonextensive statistical model for the production of cosmic rays. The possible physical mechanisms leading to these effects are discussed together with the resulting chemical composition of the cosmic rays, which follows the experimentally observed abundance of nuclei.     

High-energy neutrino emission from binary X-ray sources

Summary Recently γ-rays up to 10¹⁶ eV were observed from Cyg X3, Vela X1 and LMC X4. This is a strong indication that protons (or nuclei) are accelerated in the vicinity of the accreting pulsar. We discuss in this paper the production of high-energy neutrinos associated with the γ-ray production. We show that on the basis of observational parameters of the three binary systems, the time average of the ratio of the neutrino luminosity to the γ-ray luninosity will beL _ν/L_γ∼30. The neutrino flux will be modulated with the orbital period of the system and the neutrino light curve will be determined by the density profile of the companion star. In general some of the X-ray binaries can be both UHE γ-ray and neutrino emitters with a neutrino luminosity comparable to their X-ray luminosity. The brightest of these could be detected by future neutrino telescopes such as DUMAND and MACRO at Gran Sasso.

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Riassunto Recentemente è stata rivelata emissione di raggi gamma con energia sino a 10¹⁶eV da Cyg X3, Vela X1 ed LMC X4. Questa osservazione indica che protoni (o nuclei) sono accelerati nella vicinanza della pulsar contenuta in questi tre sistemi binari. In questo lavoro si calcola la produzione di neutrini di alta energia, associata alla produzione di raggi gamma. Il risultato ottenuto è che, tenendo conto dei parametri dedotti dalle osservazioni spettroscopiche dei tre sistemi considerati, il rapporto tra la luminosità in neutrini e la luminosità gamma èL _ν/L_γ∼30. Inoltre il flusso di neutrini sarà modulato con il periodo binario del sistema e la curva di luce dei neutrini sarà determinata dalla distribuzione di densità della stella compagna. In generale alcune delle binarie X possono essere sorgenti sia di gamma di altissima energia che di neutrini, con una luminosità in neutrini paragonabile alla luminosità in raggi X. Le piú intense tra queste potranno essere osservate da futuri telescopi per neutrini come DUMAND o MACRO.

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Резюме Недавно γ-кванты с энергиями вплоть до 10¹⁶ эВ наблюдались из Cyg X3, Vela X1 и LMC X4. Это является указанием, что протоны (или ядра) ускоряются в окрестности аккретирующего пульсара. Мы обсуждаем в этой статье образование высокоэнергетичных нейтрино, которые связано с рождением γ-квантов. Мы показываем, что на основе наблюденных параметров для трех бинарных сйстем среднее по времени отношение интенсивности испускания нейтрино к интенсивности испускания γ-квантов составляетL _ν/L_μ∼30. Модуляция потока нейтрино определяется орбитальным периодом системы, а кривая яркости нейтрино определяется профилем плотности сопутствующей звезды. Обычно ренттеновские бинарные системы могут представлять источники γ-квантов сверхвысоких энергий и источники нейтрино, причем интенсивность испускания нейтрино сопоставима с интенсивностью рентгеновского излучения. Наиболее яркие из них могут быть зарегистрированы в будущем с помощью нейтринных телескопов, таких как DUMAND и MACRO в Гран Сассо.