Laser Seminar: Quantum Design of Coherent X-rays for Imaging at the Space-Time Resolution Extreme
Date | Mo, 19.12.2016 | |
Time | 16.45 | |
Speaker | Tenio Popmintchev, Physics Department, Center for Advanced Nanoscience, University of California San Diego, USA | |
Location | ETH Zurich, Hönggerberg Campus, HPF G6 | |
Program | Nonlinear optics revolutionized the ability to create directed, laser-like light particularly in the regions where lasers based on conventional approaches are not practical. New breakthroughs in attosecond extreme nonlinear optics promise a similar revolution in the X-ray regime. In this talk, I will discuss the limits of the fundamental quantum physics and the extreme nonlinear optics of the process of high order harmonic generation in the context of creating coherent X-ray waveforms which can be tailored at the moment of generation. Such a versatile designer light is ideal for effective 5 dimensional studies of various bio- and nano-systems with attosecond temporal and nanometer spatial resolution, as well as with element specificity. I will also discuss the path forward for generating bright coherent X-ray beams from a laboratory-scale apparatus at photon energies of 1-10 keV and greater with unprecedented attosecond-to-zeptosecond pulse durations, and with arbitrary spectral, temporal shapes, and polarization state. A fully spatially and temporally coherent version of the Roentgen X-ray tube with exquisite quantum control of the properties of the soft and hard X-ray light may be possible. 1. T. Popmintchev, et al., Science 336, 1287 (2012). 2. D. Popmintchev, et al., Science 350, 1225 (2015). 3. T. Fan, et al., PNAS 112, 14206 (2015). |