Formation and amplification of subfemtosecond x-ray pulses in a plasma medium of hydrogenlike ions with a modulated resonant transition
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2017 American Physical Society. Coherent intense attosecond x-ray pulses could lead to a fast dynamical imaging of biological macromolecules and other material nanostructures with a unique combination of a record high temporal and spatial resolution. Plasma-based x-ray laser sources are capable of producing high-energy x-ray pulses but with relatively long picosecond duration. The sources based on high-harmonic generation (HHG) of a laser field allow one to produce much shorter pulses but of lower energy. We suggest two different paths towards intense subfemtosecond x-ray sources: (i) via efficient transformation of the picosecond radiation of the x-ray plasma lasers into the trains of subfemtosecond pulses in a resonantly absorbing medium, and (ii) via amplification of HHG radiation in the active medium of the x-ray plasma lasers. We show that essentially the same technique can be used for realization of both paths. This technique is a modulation of the parameters of the resonant transition (accordingly in absorbing or amplifying medium) produced under the action of a sufficiently strong infrared or optical field. We propose experimental realization of the suggested technique in the passive and/or active media of (i) Li iii ions modulated by the mid-IR laser field and (ii) C vi ions modulated by the optical laser radiation.
