Speaker
Description
We investigate generation of structured X-rays at ~9 keV energies via inverse Compton scattering (ICS) of 1030 nm structured light from ~20 MeV electrons. Structured light at X-ray photon energies enables entirely new ways of probing and controlling matter at the atomic and nanoscale, including accessing chiral, magnetic, and orbital-selective interactions that are invisible to conventional X-ray beams. However, generating such beams remains challenging: XFEL-based approaches require complex seeding or electron beam phase-space manipulation, while post-generation structuring with X-ray optics is limited by efficiency and damage thresholds.
ICS offers an alternative route in which the driving laser acts as an optical undulator, allowing the well-developed toolbox of optical beam shaping to be leveraged. This provides a high degree of flexibility, including the potential for rapid switching between spatial and polarization structures on a shot-to-shot basis. A key open question, however, is the extent to which transverse phase structure, such as orbital angular momentum (OAM), is preserved in the typically incoherent ICS process.
We present initial experimental results and calculations of OAM X-ray generation using a classical electrodynamics description of ICS, and identify observable signatures that can be used to diagnose the presence of OAM in the emitted radiation. These results aim to guide future experimental efforts toward structured X-ray generation in compact sources.
Funding Agency
-NSF RI-2 award AWD00038287: Mid-Scale RI-2 Consortium: Compact X-ray Free-Electron Laser Project (CXFEL)
-NSF RI-1 award AWD00034342: Mid-Scale RI-1 Compact X-ray Free-Electron Laser Project (CXFEL)
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