Abstract
The production of intense attosecond light pulses is an active area in accelerator research, motivated by the stringent demands of attosecond science: (i) short pulse duration for resolving the fast dynamics of electrons in atoms and molecules; (ii) high photon flux for probing and controlling such dynamics with high precision. While the free-electron laser (FEL) can deliver the highest brilliance amongst laboratory x-ray sources today, the pulse duration is typically 10–100 femtoseconds. A major obstacle to attaining attosecond duration is that the number of optical cycles increases with every undulator period. Hence, an FEL pulse typically contains tens or hundreds of cycles. In recent years, several novel concepts have been proposed to shift this paradigm, providing the basis for single-cycle pulses and paving the way towards high-brilliance attosecond light sources. This article gives an overview of these concepts.
Highlights
Thanks to the novel undulator concepts [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] proposed in recent years, accelerator-based light sources offer a means to generating intense single-cycle light pulses with a duration in the attosecond (1 as = 10−18 s) regime
The production of intense attosecond light pulses is an active area in accelerator research, motivated by the stringent demands of attosecond science: (i) short pulse duration for resolving the fast dynamics of electrons in atoms and molecules; (ii) high photon flux for probing and controlling such dynamics with high precision
Summary and Outlook This article has surveyed three novel concepts for producing intense attosecond light pulses in undulators. These concepts are an important breakthrough for three reasons
Summary
Thanks to the novel undulator concepts [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] proposed in recent years, accelerator-based light sources offer a means to generating intense single-cycle light pulses with a duration in the attosecond (1 as = 10−18 s) regime. These light sources could provide a pulse duration and a pulse energy beyond the reach of existing technologies, opening the doors to the unchartered territories in attosecond science [9, 10].
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