Coherent sub-femtosecond soft x-ray free-electron laser pulses with nonlinear compression

We demonstrate the generation of coherent soft x-ray free-electron laser (FEL) pulses with a duration below 1 fs using nonlinear compression with a low-charge electron beam (10 pC). The approach is simple, and it does not require any special hardware, so it can be readily implemented at any x-ray FEL facility. We present temporal and spectral diagnostics confirming the production of single-spike sub-femtosecond pulses for photon energies of 642 and 1111 eV. Our work will be important for ultrafast FEL applications requiring soft x-rays.