Lund investigators envision table-top x-ray laser

17 Jun 2002

The first x-ray lasers, developed in the 1980s, were energized by nuclear explosions or jolts of light from giant glass lasers built for fusion experiments. Today, investigators report how these ungainly devices are now giving birth to bench-top x-ray lasers--practical tools for studying the dynamics of chemical reactions and the intricacies of living cells. The results were reported last month at the 5th International Conference on X-Ray Lasers in Lund, Sweden.

To shrink the devices, researchers are substituting electric discharges and lower powered optical lasers for the brute-force pumping techniques of first generation x-ray lasers. Reflecting the x-rays back and forth through the laser medium extracts additional energy. The Lund terawatt laser, with its ultrashort pulse duration, high peak power and high repetition rate, may be an interesting pump source for a "table-top X-ray laser". The interest within the scientific community in this kind of pump source is great, because it is much cheaper, more widespread and has a much higher repetition rate than the few existing, enormous X-ray laser establishments in the world.Related conference on high-power lasers will be held at Photonics West, 8-14 February 1996