Manipulation of Beams of Ultra-relativistic Electrons to Create Femtosecond X-ray Pulses

Authors

Jordan T. O'Neal, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Austin Schulte, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Rafal Rakowski, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Matthias Fuchs, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

4-2016

Document Type

Poster

Citation

UCARE Poster session, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Research Fair, April 2016, Lincoln, NE.

Comments

Copyright © 2016 Jordan O’Neal, Austin Schulte, Rafal Rakowski, and Matthias Fuchs

Abstract

The research proposed here is expected to result in a crucial component used in a next-generation X-ray source. Typical conventional high-brightness X-ray sources (so-called synchrotron lightsources) are up to 30 football fields in size. Our group uses a novel technique based on ultrahigh-power lasers to develop a similar source that can readily fit into a single, university-scale laboratory. More specifically, the research conducted within this proposal will be concerned with the manipulation of beams of ultra-relativistic electrons, (electrons that move with almost the speed of light) with the goal to focus the particles into an area that is smaller than the diameter of a human hair. X-ray sources are commonly used to resolve the molecular constituents of matter on the atomic-scale (i.e. to spatially resolve molecular structures and dynamics on their natural length and time scale). This requires X-ray pulses with Angström wavelengths (less than a billionth meter, 10^(-10) m) and femtosecond (a millionth of a billionth second, 10^(-15) s) duration.