Broadband soft X-ray source from a clustered gas target dedicated to high-resolution XCT and X-ray absorption spectroscopy

The development of the broad-bandwidth photon sources emitting in the soft X-ray range has attracted great attention for a long time due to the possible applications in high-resolution spectroscopy, nano-metrology, and material sciences. A high photon flux accompanied by a broad, smooth spectrum is...

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Published in:Optics express 2022-12, Vol.30 (26), p.47867-47878
Main Authors: Janulewicz, Karol A, Węgrzyński, Łukasz, Fok, Tomasz, Bartnik, Andrzej, Fiedorowicz, Henryk, Skruszewicz, Sławomir, Wünsche, Martin, Eckner, Erich, Fuchs, Silvio, Reinhard, Julius, Abel, Johann J, Wiesner, Felix, Paulus, Gerhard G, Rödel, Christian, Kim, Chul Min, Wachulak, Przemysław W
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:The development of the broad-bandwidth photon sources emitting in the soft X-ray range has attracted great attention for a long time due to the possible applications in high-resolution spectroscopy, nano-metrology, and material sciences. A high photon flux accompanied by a broad, smooth spectrum is favored for the applications such as near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS), extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), or XUV/X-ray coherence tomography (XCT). So far, either large-scale facilities or technologically challenging systems providing only limited photon flux in a single shot dominate the suitable sources. Here, we present a soft, broad-band (1.5 nm - 10.7 nm) soft X-ray source. The source is based on the interaction of very intense laser pulses with a target formed by a cluster mixture. A photon yield of 2.4 × 10 photons/pulse into 4π (full space) was achieved with a medium containing Xe clusters of moderate-size mixed with a substantial amount of extremely large ones. It is shown that such a cluster mixture enhances the photon yield in the soft X-ray range by roughly one order of magnitude. The size of the resulting source is not beneficial (≤500 µm but this deficit is compensated by a specific spectral structure of its emission fulfilling the specific needs of the spectroscopic (broad spectrum and high signal dynamics) and metrological applications (broad and smoothed spectrum enabling a sub-nanometer resolution limit for XCT).
ISSN:1094-4087
1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.477726