A new, better technology for X-ray laser pulses

Edgar Kaksis ( left ) und Paolo Carpeggiani Simpler and much more efficient than ever before: A new technology for producing X-ray laser pulses has been developed at TU Wien. The X-rays used to examine a broken leg in hospital are easy to produce. In industry, however, X-ray radiation of a completely different kind is needed - namely, X-ray laser pulses that are as short and high-energy as possible. They are used, for example, in the production of nanostructures and electronic components, but also to monitor chemical reactions in real time. Intense, extremely short-wave X-ray pulses in the nanometre wavelength range are difficult to produce, but now a new, simpler method has been developed at TU Wien (Vienna): the starting point is not a titanium-sapphire laser, which had mostly been used for this purpose, but an ytterbium laser. The crucial trick is that the light is then sent through a gas in order to change its properties. Long wavelengths lead to short wavelengths The wavelength of a laser beam depends on the material in which it is generated: In the atoms or molecules involved, electrons change from one state to another state with lower energy.