Significance: An X-ray oscillator generating fully coherent pulses at the characteristic length and time scale of atomic and molecular phenomena, angstrom wavelength, and femtosecond time duration has been a dream of laser physics from the 1960s. The paper presents a study of an X-ray oscillator based on population inversion of K α electrons in a transition-metal compound, generating fully coherent, transform-limited, high-power radiation pulses, in the 3- to <1-Å wavelength region, with a high-energy resolution, about 0.05 eV, showing that the dream can now become a reality. The X-ray laser oscillator will open experimental possibilities and research areas in quantum optics, chemical dynamics, imaging, spectroscopy, and interferometric measurements.

Significance: The generation of phase-stable femtosecond X-ray pulse pairs will advance nonlinear spectroscopies and imaging, providing direct insight into the coupled motions of electrons and nuclei with resolution on the electronic length scale and timescale. This paper presents the generation of such pulse pairs in the X-ray domain. The approach uses X-ray free-electron laser pulses to induce highly directional, intense, phase-stable pairs of superfluorescence and seeded stimulated emission at the 5.9 keV manganese Kα ₁ line. The finding is evidenced by strong interference fringes in the superfluorescence and stimulated emission signals.

The use of a large-circumference, high-energy, electron-positron collider such as PEP, TRISTAN or PETRA to drive a free-electron laser (FEL), producing high levels of coherent power at short wavelengths around 40 Å is explored. We consider self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE), in which electron bunches with low emittance, high peak current and small energy spread radiate coherently in a single pass through a long undulator. As the electron beam passes down the undulator, its interaction with the increasingly intense spontaneous radiation causes a bunch density modulation at the optical wavelength, resulting in stimulated emission and exponential growth of coherent power in a single pass. The need for optical-cavity mirrors, which place a lower limit on the wavelength of a conventional FEL oscillator, is avoided. Various combinations of electron-beam and undulator parameters, as well as special undulator designs, are discussed. Saturation and high peak, in-band, coherent power (460 MW) are possible with a 67 m, hybrid permanent-magnet undulator in a ring bypass. A 100 m, cusp-field undulator can achieve high average, in-band, coherent power (0.25 W) in the main ring. The existing, 25.6 m. Paladin undulator at LLNL, with the addition of optical-klystron dispersive sections, is considered for both peak and average power.

The measurement of the transverse phase-space map, or transport matrix, of a relativistic electron in a high-gradient, radio-frequency linear accelerator (rf linac) at the UCLA photoinjector is reported. This matrix, which indicates the effects of acceleration (adiabatic damping), first-order transient focusing, and ponderomotive second-order focusing, is measured as a function of both rf field amplitude and phase in the linac. The elements of the matrix, determined by observation of centroid motion at a set of downstream diagnostics due to deflections induced by a set of upstream steering magnets, compare well with previously developed analytical theory [J. Rosenzweig and L. Serafini, Phys. Rev. E 49, 1599 (1994)]. The determinant of the matrix is obtained, yielding a direct confirmation of trace space adiabatic damping. Implications of these results on beam optics at moderate energy in high-gradient linear accelerators such as rf photoinjectors are discussed.

This paper presents a novel method to improve the longitudinal coherence, efficiency and maximum photon energy of x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs). The method is equivalent to having two separate concatenated XFELs. The first uses one bunch of electrons to reach the saturation regime, generating a high power self-amplified spontaneous emission x-ray pulse at the fundamental and third harmonic. The x-ray pulse is filtered through an attenuator/monochromator and seeds a different electron bunch in the second FEL, using the fundamental and/or third harmonic as an input signal. In our method we combine the two XFELs operating with two bunches, separated by one or more rf cycles, in the same linear accelerator. We discuss the advantages and applications of the proposed system for present and future XFELs.