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Abstract In the 60 years since the invention of the laser, the scientific community has developed numerous fields of research based on these bright, coherent light sources, including the areas of imaging, spectroscopy, materials processing and communications. Ultrafast spectroscopy and imaging techniques are at the forefront of research into the light–matter interaction at the shortest times accessible to experiments, ranging from a few attoseconds to nanoseconds. Light pulses provide a crucial probe of the dynamical motion of charges, spins, and atoms on picosecond, femtosecond, and down to attosecond timescales, none of which are accessible even with the fastest electronic devices. Furthermore, strong light pulses can drive materials into unusual phases, with exotic properties. In this roadmap we describe the current state-of-the-art in experimental and theoretical studies of condensed matter using ultrafast probes. In each contribution, the authors also use their extensive knowledge to highlight challenges and predict future trends.
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Coherence and superradiance from a plasma-based quasiparticle accelerator
Coherent light sources, such as free-electron lasers, provide bright beams for studies in biology, chemistry and physics. However, increasing the brightness of these sources requires progressively larger instruments, with the largest examples, such as the Linac Coherent Light Source at Stanford, being several kilometres long. It would be transformative if this scaling trend could be overcome so that compact, bright sources could be employed at universities, hospitals and industrial laboratories. Here we address this issue by rethinking the basic principles of radiation physics. At the core of our work is the introduction of quasiparticle-based light sources that rely on the collective and macroscopic motion of an ensemble of light-emitting charges to evolve and radiate in ways that would be unphysical for single charges. The underlying concept allows for temporal coherence and superradiance in new configurations, such as in plasma accelerators, providing radiation with intriguing properties and clear experimental signatures spanning nearly ten octaves in wavelength, from the terahertz to the extreme ultraviolet. The simplicity of the quasiparticle approach makes it suitable for experimental demonstrations at existing laser and accelerator facilities and also extends well beyond this case to other scenarios such as nonlinear optical configurations.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2108970
- PAR ID:
- 10523535
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Nature
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Nature Photonics
- Volume:
- 18
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1749-4885
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 39 to 45
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01311-z
