Generation of narrow-band X-ray free-electron laser via reflection self-seeding

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs)1,2 are widely operated on the basis of self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE)3,4, where spontaneous radiation from the electron beam is amplified along the magnetic field in undulators. Despite their high intensities, SASE-XFELs have a broad spectrum due to the stochastic starting-up process5. To narrow the bandwidth, self-seeding has been proposed6,7 and recently demonstrated8,9, where the seed pulse produced by monochromatizing the SASE-XFELs from the first section of undulators using a thin crystal in transmission geometry is amplified in the remaining undulators. Here, we present an efficient self-seeding scheme using the Bragg reflection to produce a seed pulse. We applied this scheme to SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free-electron LAser (SACLA)10, and produced nearly Fourier-transform-limited XFEL pulses that correspond to an increase in spectral brightness by a factor of six compared with SASE-XFELs. This achievement will not only enhance the throughput of present XFEL experiments but also should open new opportunities for X-ray science. A nearly Fourier-limited X-ray free-electron laser beam is generated by a self-seeding scheme. The beam in the first half of the undulators is monochromatized via Bragg reflection, and is subsequently amplified in the remaining undulators.