Two-stage seeded soft-X-ray free-electron laser

We report the first generation of coherent, tunable, variable-polarization, soft X-ray femtosecond pulses, generated by a seeded free-electron laser (FEL) operating in the fresh bunch, two-stage harmonic upshift configuration. Characterization of the radiation proves this FEL configuration can produce single-transverse-mode, narrow-spectral-bandwidth output pulses of several tens of microjoules energy and low pulse-to-pulse wavelength jitter at final wavelengths of 10.8 nm and below. The fresh bunch configuration enhances the FEL emission at high harmonic orders by avoiding a gain depression due to the energy spread induced by the first-stage FEL interaction. Coherent signals measured down to 4.3 nm suggest this configuration is directly scalable to photon energies that will enable scientific investigations below the carbon K-edge, including access to the L-edges of many magnetic materials, with an energy per pulse unlocking the gate for experiments in the soft X-ray region with close to Fourier-transform-limited pulses. © 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.