Microbunching instability and XFEL longitudinal coherence

In X-ray lasers the electron bunch is compressed to boost its current, but tiny density ripples grow during compression and spoil the beam. The X-ray pulses also start from random noise, so their colors are messy and making them clean is still hard.

Why it matters

These effects limit the spectral purity, brightness and stability of X-ray free-electron lasers.

Review

C. Pellegrini, A. Marinelli, S. Reiche, The physics of x-ray free-electron lasers, Reviews of Modern Physics, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.88.015006 reference checked

See also

Timestamp record

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Entry 67, in checkpoint 2,123
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3 problems