Nonlinear optics revolutionized the ability to create directed, laser-like light particularly in the regions where lasers based on conventional population inversion are not practical. New breakthroughs in attosecond extreme nonlinear optics promise a similar revolution in the X-ray regime.
In this talk, I will discuss the fundamental quantum physics and the phase matching limits of high order harmonic generation in the context of creating coherent X-ray waveforms in the soft X-ray region that can be tailored at the moment of generation. Such a versatile designer light is ideal for 4D studies of various bio- and nano-materials systems with attosecond temporal and nanometer spatial resolution, as well as with element specificity. I will also discuss the path forward for generating bright coherent X-ray beams from a laboratory-scale apparatus at photon energies of 10 keV and greater with unprecedented attosecond-to-zeptosecond pulse durations, and with arbitrary spectral, temporal shapes, and polarization states. A fully spatially and temporally coherent version of the Roentgen X-ray tube with exquisite quantum control of the properties of the soft and hard X-ray light may be possible.
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3. T. Fan, et al., PNAS 112, 14206 (2015).
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