Laser-Electron Storage Ring as a Compact Source of High-Intensity X-rays

Abstract

The authors propose a laser-electron storage ring as a high-intensity x-ray source. In this compact device, an intense pulse from a high power laser, stored in a highly reflective optical resonator, repetitively Compton backscatters off a bunched electron beam that circulates in a compact storage ring. The laser-electron interaction not only gives rise to x-rays at the desired wavelength, but also stabilizes the dense electron bunch against the intrabeam scattering effect in the storage ring. Thus, a sufficient amount of x-rays can be generated by this device to make it an excellent and flexible x-ray source for high-throughput x-ray lithography and many other applications.