High Repetition Rate and Coherent Free-Electron Laser in the X-Rays Range Tailored for Linear Spectroscopy

Fine time-resolved analysis of matter—i.e., spectroscopy and photon scattering—in the linear response regime requires fs-scale pulsed, high repetition rate, fully coherent X-ray sources. A seeded Free Electron Laser (FEL) driven by a Linac based on Super Conducting cavities, generating 10 8 − 10 10 coherent photons at 2−5 keV with 0.2−1 MHz of repetition rate, can address this need. Three different seeding schemes, reaching the X-ray range, are described hereafter. The first two are multi-stage cascades upshifting the radiation frequency by a factor of 10−30 starting from a seed represented by a coherent flash of extreme ultraviolet light. This radiation can be provided either by the High Harmonic Generation of an optical laser or by an FEL Oscillator operating at 12−14 nm. The third scheme is a regenerative amplifier working with X-ray mirrors. The whole chain of the X-ray generation is here described by means of start-to-end simulations.