RIKEN and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) have successfully produced a beam of X-ray laser light with a wavelength of 0.12 nm. This was created using the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser (SACLA), a cutting-edge X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) facility unveiled by RIKEN in February 2011 in Harima. It opens a window into the structure of atoms and molecules at a level of detail never seen before.
One of only two facilities in the world to offer this novel light source, SACLA has the capacity to deliver radiation one billion times brighter and with pulses one thousand times shorter than other existing X-ray sources. In late March, the facility marked its first milestone, accelerating beam to 8 GeV and spontaneous X-rays produced at 0.08 nm.
Only three months later, SACLA has marked a second milestone. On 7 June, operators successfully increased the density of the electron beam by several hundred times and guided it with a precision of several micrometres to produce a bright X-ray laser with a wavelength of only 0.12 nm (a photon energy of 10 keV). This matches the record of 0.12 nm set at the only other operational XFEL facility in the world, the Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC.
With experiments soon to commence and user operations at the facility to begin by the end of fiscal year 2011, this new record offers a taste of things to come with SACLA’s powerful beam.
