Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Attosecond pulses provide direct access to electron dynamics in atoms, molecules, and solids on their natural timescales. While table-top sources have achieved attosecond pulse durations at moderate intensities, extending attosecond science to high peak powers in the x-ray regime requires free-electron lasers (FELs). Here we report the generation of soft-x-ray pulses with a duration of $\sim\!100$ as and peak power on the order of 10 TW at the European XFEL. The unprecedented combination of pulse duration and peak power is enabled by operation of a soft-x-ray undulator at high electron energy together with five-stage bunch compression, producing ultrahigh peak currents. These millijoule-level attosecond x-ray pulses establish a new regime for attosecond science.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Schneidmiller, E. A., Serkez, S., Zagorodnov, I., Gerasimova, N., Scholz, M., Golubeva, N., Guetg, M., Geloni, G., Karabekyan, S., Sottocorona, F., Trebushinin, A., Perosa, G., Tomin, S., Mayet, F., Maltezopoulos, Th., Gruenert, J., Laksman, J., Rashtabadi, H. Ahmadi, Baumann, T. M., Boll, R., Calegari, F., Catacchio, G., Dold, S., de Lima, D. E. Ferreira, Funke, L., Helml, W., Ilchen, M., Mazza, T., Meyer, M., Mullins, T., Robinson, M., Savio, S., Scharei, K., Schmidt, Ph., Thiel, A., Usenko, S., Wuelfing, L., Decking, W.
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Verbundprojekt 05K2022 - TRANSALP: Zeit- & winkelaufgelöste Spektroskopie an Proben in der flüssigen Phase. Teilprojekt 1., Verbundprojekt 05K2025 - AttoSee: Ankunftsmessungen für angular-streaking basierte Attosekundenexperimente beim European XFEL. Teilprojekt 1., Verbundprojekt 05K2019 - SpeAR_XFEL: Spektrometer mit Winkelauflösung für Ultraschnelle Experimente an Röntgen-FELs. Teilprojekt 1.
OpenAlex ID: W7214636811