Scientists made a major advancement in X-ray science by creating high-power attosecond hard X-ray pulses with megahertz repetition rates, allowing for ultrafast electron dynamics study and atomic-level non-destructive measurements.
These pulses are significant due to their ability to capture quick electron movements, leading to potential applications in attosecond crystallography and transformative impacts across various scientific disciplines.
Breakthrough in X-Ray Pulse Technology
A team of researchers at European XFEL and DESY has made a groundbreaking advance in X-ray science by creating high-power attosecond hard X-ray pulses with megahertz repetition rates. This achievement opens new possibilities for studying ultrafast electron dynamics and performing non-destructive atomic-scale measurements. The researchers published their findings on November 25 in Nature Photonics.
The researchers successfully generated single-spike hard X-ray pulses with energy levels exceeding 100 microjoules and pulse durations lasting only a few hundred attoseconds. For context, an attosecond is one-quintillionth of a second—a timescale so short it enables scientists to observe the fastest electron movements in matter.
New Opportunities in Atomic-Scale Research
“These high-power attosecond X-ray pulses could open new avenues for studying matter at the atomic scale,” says Jiawei Yan, physicist at European XFEL and lead author of the study published in Nature Photonics. “With these unique X-rays, we can perform truly damage-free measurements of structural and electronic properties. This paves the way for advanced studies like attosecond crystallography, allowing us to observe electronic dynamics in real space.”
Traditional methods for generating such ultra-short hard X-ray pulses required dramatically reducing the electron bunch charge to tens of picocoulombs, which limited the pulse energy and practical use. The team developed a self-chirping method, utilizing the collective effects of electron beams and specialized beam transport systems at the European XFEL. This approach enables the generation of attosecond X-ray pulses at terawatt-scale peak power and megahertz repetition rates without reducing the electron bunch charge.
Transformative Potential for Scientific Research
“By combining ultra-short pulses with megahertz repetition rates, we can now collect data much faster and observe processes that were previously hidden from view,“ says Gianluca Geloni, group leader of the FEL physics group at the European XFEL. “This development promises to transform research across multiple scientific fields, especially for atomic-scale imaging of protein molecules and materials and investigating nonlinear X-ray phenomena.”
Reference: “Terawatt-attosecond hard X-ray free-electron laser at high repetition rate” by Jiawei Yan, Weilun Qin, Ye Chen, Winfried Decking, Philipp Dijkstal, Marc Guetg, Ichiro Inoue, Naresh Kujala, Shan Liu, Tianyun Long, Najmeh Mirian and Gianluca Geloni, 25 November 2024, Nature Photonics.
DOI: 10.1038/s41566-024-01566-0
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