Recently, few-femtosecond pulses have become available at hard X-ray free-electron lasers. Coupled with the available sub-10 fs optical pulses, investigations into few-femtosecond dynamics are not ...far off. However, achieving sufficient synchronization between optical lasers and X-ray pulses continues to be challenging. We report a 'measure-and-sort' approach, which achieves sub-10 fs root-mean-squared (r.m.s.) error measurement at hard X-ray FELs, far beyond the 100-200 fs r.m.s. jitter limitations. This timing diagnostic, now routinely available at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), is based on ultrafast free-carrier generation in optically transparent materials. Correlation between two independent measurements enables unambiguous demonstration of ∼6 fs r.m.s. error in reporting the optical/X-ray delay, with single shot error suggesting the possibility of reaching few-femtosecond resolution.
Inertial confinement fusion implosions must achieve high in-flight shell velocity, sufficient energy coupling between the hot spot and imploding shell, and high areal density (ρR=∫ρdr) at stagnation. ...Asymmetries in ρR degrade the coupling of shell kinetic energy to the hot spot and reduce the confinement of that energy. We present the first evidence that nonuniformity in the ablator shell thickness (∼0.5% of the total thickness) in high-density carbon experiments is a significant cause for observed 3D ρR asymmetries at the National Ignition Facility. These shell-thickness nonuniformities have significantly impacted some recent experiments leading to ρR asymmetries on the order of ∼25% of the average ρR and hot spot velocities of ∼100 km/s. This work reveals the origin of a significant implosion performance degradation in ignition experiments and places stringent new requirements on capsule thickness metrology and symmetry.
Data from nuclear diagnostics present correlated signatures of azimuthal implosion asymmetry in recent indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosion campaigns performed at the National ...Ignition Facility (NIF). The mean hot-spot velocity, inferred from the Doppler shift of 14 MeV neutrons produced by deuterium-tritium (DT) fusion, is systematically directed toward one azimuthal half of the NIF target chamber, centered on ϕ≈70°. Areal density (ρR) asymmetry of the converged DT fuel, inferred from nuclear activation diagnostics, presents a minimum ρR in the same direction as the hot-spot velocity and with ΔρR amplitude correlated with velocity magnitude. These two correlated observations, which are seen in all recent campaigns with cryogenic layers of DT fuel, are a known signature of asymmetry in the fuel convergence, implying a systematic azimuthal drive asymmetry across a wide range of shot and target configurations. The direction of the implied radiation asymmetry is observed to cluster toward the hohlraum diagnostic windows. This low-mode asymmetry degrades hot-spot conditions at peak convergence and limits implosion performance and yield.
Today's brightest coherent X-ray sources, X-ray free-electron lasers, produce ultrafast X-ray pulses for which full-width at half-maximum durations as short as 3 fs have been measured. There has been ...a marked increase in the popularity of such short pulses now that optical timing techniques have begun to report an X-ray/optical delay below ∼10 fs r.m.s. errors. As a result, sub-10 fs optical pulses have been implemented at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray beamlines, thus warranting a push to reduce the error in X-ray/optical delay measurements to the 1 fs level. Here, we report a unique two-dimensional spectrogram measurement of the relative X-ray/optical delay. This easily scalable relative delay measurement already surpasses previous techniques by an order of magnitude with its sub-1 fs temporal resolution and opens up the prospect of time-resolved X-ray measurements to the attosecond community.
We present the first demonstration of ultrafast laser-induced field emission and measurement of the energy distribution of electrons from a nanotip based on a carbon nanotube (CNT). Our experimental ...setup extends the studies performed on conventional tungsten or gold tips by using this new innovative tip. The carbon tip consists of concentric carbon layers in the shape of a cone, and has been previously studied as a very good candidate for cold field emission. The first laser-induced field emission from a CNT-based nanotip has been observed and we measured the energy spectrum as well as the polarization dependance of the emission. We also characterize the damage threshold of the tip, when illuminated by a high repetition rate femtosecond laser. These first results are encouraging further studies of electron emission from CNT-based carbon nanotips.
•First demonstration of ultrafast-laser induced emission from a CNT based nanotip.•Nanotip consists of concentric carbon layers in the shape of a cone.•Measurements of the energy spectrum and polarization dependence of emission.•Characterization of tip damage threshold.
We study optical field emission from silver nanotips, showing the combined influence of the illumination wavelength and the exact shape of the nanotip on the strong-field response. This is ...particularly relevant in the case of FIB milled nano tips, where the nanotip fabrication capabilities could become a new ingredient for the study of strong-field physics. The influence of the thermal load on the nanotip and its effect on the emission is studied as well by switching the repetition rate of the laser source from 1 kHz to 62 MHz, showing a clear transition towards the quenching of the strong-field emission.
Broadband optical parametric amplification in the IR region has reached a new milestone through the use of a non-collinear Frequency domain Optical Parametric Amplification system. We report a laser ...source delivering 11.6 fs pulses with 30 mJ of energy at a central wavelength of 1.8 μm at 10 Hz repetition rate corresponding to a peak power of 2.5 TW. The peak power scaling is accompanied by a pulse shortening of about 20% upon amplification due to the spectral reshaping with higher gain in the spectral wings. This source paves the way for high flux soft X-ray pulses and IR-driven laser wakefield acceleration.
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