Attosecond-Angstrom free-electron-laser towards the cold beam limit

Attosecond-Angstrom free-electron-laser towards the cold beam limit | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Attosecond-Angstrom free-electron-laser towards the cold beam limit A. F. Habib, G.G. Manahan, P. Scherkl, T. Heinemann, A. Sutherland, and 11 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2354583/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Electron beam quality is paramount for X-ray pulse production in free-electron-lasers (FELs). State-of-the-art linear accelerators (linacs) can deliver multi-GeV electron beams with sufficient quality for hard X-ray-FELs, albeit requiring km-scale setups, whereas plasma-based accelerators can produce multi-GeV electron beams on metre-scale distances, and begin to reach beam qualities sufficient for EUV FELs. We show, that electron beams from plasma photocathodes many orders of magnitude brighter than state-of-the-art can be generated in plasma wakefieldaccelerators (PWFA), and then extracted, captured, transported and injected into undulators without quality loss. These ultrabright, sub-femtosecond electron beams can drive hard X-FELs near the cold beam limit to generate coherent X-ray pulses of attosecond-Angstrom class, reaching saturation after only 10 metres of undulator. This plasma-X-FEL opens pathways for novel photon science capabilities, such as unperturbed observation of electronic motion inside atoms at their natural time and length scale, and towards higher photon energies. High Energy and Particle Physics PWFA plasma photocathode X-FEL attosecond angstrom Full Text Supplementary Files 20221124ManuscriptTHPWFAXFELSuppMaterialfinal.pdf Supplementary Information: Attosecond-Angstrom free-electron-laser towards the cold beam limit Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-2354583","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":158248897,"identity":"0624d4ad-71c7-4719-9686-465e3263717b","order_by":0,"name":"A. F. Habib","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABA0lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCSDmYTjAYMDMw/gALgIEBsRoYTZgSAByiNfCwMMmQZQW/tndiR/eMNyRN2fnPVb588c9eXvpBsYPPxgOG+O05M7ZzZJzGJ4Z7mzmS7vNk1Bs2CNzgFmyh+GwGU6H3cjdIM3DcJhxw2Ees9sMCQmMPRIJDNIMDIdtcOmQv5G7+TdQiz1IS+GPhAR7oBbm3/i0GNzI3QayJRGkhYEnISERqIUNZAtOhxkCtVjOMTicDPRLsjRPWkJyz43ENsseg3Sc3pcDOuzGm4rDttv5zx78+MMmwbZ9RvLhGz8qrA0bcPof7DwUHmMDvogcBaNgFIyCUUAEAABu0FW+Nb4x4wAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2108-8702","institution":"Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK; The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, UK","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"A.","middleName":"F.","lastName":"Habib","suffix":""},{"id":158248898,"identity":"cfc3ae7b-2800-48d9-b658-abf9e5d12784","order_by":1,"name":"G.G. Manahan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK; The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"G.G.","middleName":"","lastName":"Manahan","suffix":""},{"id":158248899,"identity":"45ef7ddd-b3df-4dfa-9958-e632c6b06cc5","order_by":2,"name":"P. Scherkl","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK;2\tThe Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, UK; 3\tUniversity Medical Center Hamburg - Eppendorf, University of Hamburg, 20246 Hamburg, Germany","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"P.","middleName":"","lastName":"Scherkl","suffix":""},{"id":158248900,"identity":"bdb2d997-ea80-4ece-933c-9ac106aff302","order_by":3,"name":"T. Heinemann","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK; The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"T.","middleName":"","lastName":"Heinemann","suffix":""},{"id":158248901,"identity":"003fcdf6-3443-4473-a50b-895316ac26b4","order_by":4,"name":"A. Sutherland","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK; The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"A.","middleName":"","lastName":"Sutherland","suffix":""},{"id":158248902,"identity":"a2bdc5f3-bc57-4668-a98b-46e9911d961f","order_by":5,"name":"R. Altuiri","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"R.","middleName":"","lastName":"Altuiri","suffix":""},{"id":158248903,"identity":"057c1b9e-4061-437e-afa5-e94b07b6fe0e","order_by":6,"name":"B. M. Alotaibi","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"B.","middleName":"M.","lastName":"Alotaibi","suffix":""},{"id":158248904,"identity":"c44734c5-23b7-4233-9d34-50c7837cea87","order_by":7,"name":"M. Litos","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"M.","middleName":"","lastName":"Litos","suffix":""},{"id":158248905,"identity":"477e3a90-eea9-4da1-9c7e-20dfccd1d01b","order_by":8,"name":"J. Cary","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA; 6\tTech-X Corporation, Boulder, USA","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"J.","middleName":"","lastName":"Cary","suffix":""},{"id":158248906,"identity":"3c28ccae-6609-4ca5-b9a5-c49f033c55d0","order_by":9,"name":"T. Raubenheimer","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California, USA","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"T.","middleName":"","lastName":"Raubenheimer","suffix":""},{"id":158248907,"identity":"68276046-ef9a-4f61-9c86-a2c169b9a5d4","order_by":10,"name":"E. Hemsing","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California, USA","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"E.","middleName":"","lastName":"Hemsing","suffix":""},{"id":158248908,"identity":"c3880b08-ad12-4663-b410-c28abf1bbd79","order_by":11,"name":"M. Hogan","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California, USA","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"M.","middleName":"","lastName":"Hogan","suffix":""},{"id":158248909,"identity":"ee14198f-d1f7-4a3a-b355-3525ecaa906e","order_by":12,"name":"J.B. Rosenzweig","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California Los Angeles, USA","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"J.B.","middleName":"","lastName":"Rosenzweig","suffix":""},{"id":158248910,"identity":"4f61ff3b-fbee-41de-826b-901d7d9072ce","order_by":13,"name":"P. H. Williams","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, UK; ASTeC, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"P.","middleName":"H.","lastName":"Williams","suffix":""},{"id":158248911,"identity":"93aa4867-1e89-41db-abe2-b59e9dba6fce","order_by":14,"name":"B. W. J. McNeil","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK; The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"B.","middleName":"W. J.","lastName":"McNeil","suffix":""},{"id":158248912,"identity":"fa5b7d47-1f14-4cfd-a9fe-e03fee33eb30","order_by":15,"name":"B. Hidding","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK; The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, UK","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"B.","middleName":"","lastName":"Hidding","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2022-12-07 15:16:29","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":true,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"coiExplicitlySet":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2354583/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2354583/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":30077761,"identity":"6e34d4bc-4e93-4c40-b363-dfc9ac95c2b7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-12-08 16:48:48","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":771266,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"20221124ManuscriptTHPWFAXFELNatCommfinal.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2354583/v1_covered.pdf"},{"id":30077760,"identity":"df0ab74a-7e6a-4fd7-8148-8115fec2c5b2","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2022-12-08 16:48:39","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":357653,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSupplementary Information: Attosecond-Angstrom free-electron-laser towards the cold beam limit\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"20221124ManuscriptTHPWFAXFELSuppMaterialfinal.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-2354583/v1/53c166b77b6d028ec013cc44.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAttosecond-Angstrom free-electron-laser towards the cold beam limit\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"University of Strathclyde","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"PWFA, plasma photocathode, X-FEL, attosecond, angstrom ","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2354583/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2354583/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eElectron beam quality is paramount for X-ray pulse production in free-electron-lasers (FELs). State-of-the-art linear accelerators (linacs) can deliver multi-GeV electron beams with sufficient quality for hard X-ray-FELs, albeit requiring km-scale setups, whereas plasma-based accelerators can produce multi-GeV electron beams on metre-scale distances, and begin to reach beam qualities sufficient for EUV FELs.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWe show, that electron beams from plasma photocathodes many orders of magnitude brighter than state-of-the-art can be generated in plasma wakefieldaccelerators (PWFA), and then extracted, captured, transported and injected into undulators without quality loss. These ultrabright, sub-femtosecond electron beams can drive hard X-FELs near the cold beam limit to generate coherent X-ray pulses of attosecond-Angstrom class, reaching saturation after only 10 metres of undulator.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis plasma-X-FEL opens pathways for novel photon science capabilities, such as unperturbed observation of electronic motion inside atoms at their natural time and length scale, and towards higher photon energies.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Attosecond-Angstrom free-electron-laser towards the cold beam limit","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2022-12-08 16:48:34","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-2354583/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"12d9504d-b8ab-45ef-be13-743d88cd4e3e","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 8th, 2022","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":17533352,"name":"High Energy and Particle Physics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2022-12-08T16:48:34+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2022-12-08 16:48:34","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-2354583","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-2354583","identity":"rs-2354583","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"ApUGefWb6u5IBVtyqm6d5","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}