Dynamically patterning x-ray beam by a femtosecond optical laser.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39565855.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adp5326 and PMC identifier 11578175.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Modern science and technology have greatly benefitted from our ability to precisely manipulate light waves, in both their spatial and temporal degrees of freedom. In the x-ray region, however, spatial control has been virtually static mainly due to stringent requirements for realizing high-performance optical elements. The lack of dynamic spatial control of x-ray beam has prevented researchers from realizing more sophisticated use of the wave field, which has rapidly advanced in the optical region in the past decades. In this study, we propose a practical scheme to dynamically control local x-ray reflectivity of a perfect silicon crystal by a femtosecond optical laser and demonstrate a programmable spatial x-ray modulator. Our modulator aims for spatial manipulation of the x-ray amplitude and is shown to produce arbitrary grayscale patterns with spatial frequencies up to 25 per millimeter. The proposed modulation scheme opens up a platform to enable advanced x-ray sensing and imaging techniques that can fully harness the wave nature of x-rays.