Wavelength scaling and multicolor operation of a plasma-driven attosecond x-ray source via harmonic generation

Abstract

The generation of high-power coherent soft x-ray pulses of sub-100 as duration and 10 nm wavelength using beams from a GeV energy plasma wakefield accelerator has been recently investigated in Emma et al. [APL Photonics 6, 076107 (2021)]. As a future upgrade to this concept, this contribution investigates scaling to shorter x-ray wavelengths by cascading undulators tuned to higher harmonics of the fundamental. We present two simulation studies for plasma-driven attosecond harmonic generation schemes with final photon wavelengths of 2 and 0.40 nm. We demonstrate in these schemes that using undulators with retuned fundamental frequencies can produce GW-scale pulses of sub-nm radiation with tens of attosecond-scale pulse lengths, an order of magnitude shorter than current state-of-the-art attosecond x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs). This multipulse multicolor operation will be broadly applicable to attosecond pump-probe experiments.