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Reaching Vacuum Harmonic Generation and Approaching the Schwinger Limit with X‐Rays
Author(s) -
Borisov A. B.,
McCorkindale J. C.,
Poopalasingam S.,
Longworth J. W.,
Rhodes C. K.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
contributions to plasma physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1521-3986
pISSN - 0863-1042
DOI - 10.1002/ctpp.201310031
Subject(s) - physics , atomic physics , plasma , femtosecond , range (aeronautics) , limit (mathematics) , harmonic , yield (engineering) , figure of merit , intensity (physics) , pulse (music) , optics , laser , materials science , nuclear physics , quantum mechanics , detector , thermodynamics , mathematical analysis , mathematics , composite material
The derivation of an elementary figure of merit shows that the attainment of ultrahigh intensities suitable for probing the dynamics of the vacuum state is significantly facilitated by the use of coherent x‐ray sources in the kiloelectronvolt regime. For the Xe(M) system at ω ∼ 1 keV, estimates indicate that an intensity sufficient for the observation of vacuum harmonic generation (∼ 10 27 W/cm 2 ) can be reached with pulse energies in the 10 – 100 mJ range. Recent measurements indicate that x‐ray yield of Xe(M) 4f → 3d emission from Xe clusters in self‐trapped plasma channels produced with femtosecond 248 nm pulses can be readily extended into this range. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)