Washington, June 14 : Japanese scientists have successfully produced a beam of X-ray laser light with the shortest wavelength ever, i.e. 1.2 Angstroms, bringing the world’s most advanced X-ray free electron laser a step closer to reality.
RIKEN and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) created this record-breaking light using SACLA, a cutting-edge X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility unveiled by RIKEN in February 2011 in Harima, Japan.
SACLA (SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser) opens a window into the structure of atoms and molecules at a level of detail never seen before.
By providing much shorter wavelengths and higher intensities than other lasers, XFEL enables researchers to directly observe and manipulate objects on an unrivalled scale, opening new research opportunities in fields ranging from medicine and drug discovery to nanotechnology.
One of only two facilities in the world to offer this novel light source, SACLA has the capacity to deliver radiation one billion times brighter and with pulses one thousand times shorter than other existing X-ray sources.
In late March, the facility marked its first milestone with beam acceleration to 8GeV and spontaneous X-rays of 0.8 Angstroms.
Only three months later, SACLA has marked a second milestone. On June 7, SACLA successfully increased the density of the electron beam by several hundred times and guided it with a precision of several micrometers to produce a bright X-ray laser with a record-breaking wavelength of only 1.2 Angstroms.
ANI
