Boosting X-ray emission

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 501; no. 7466; pp. 172 - 173
• Main Author: Fill, Ernst
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 12.09.2013; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/301; 639/766; Chemical elements; Emissions; Experiments; Humanities and Social Sciences; Lasers; Materials science; Methods; multidisciplinary; news-and-views; Photons; Science; Studies; X-ray spectroscopy; Germany
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/501172a

A spectroscopic technique has been demonstrated that uses stimulated emission to enhance weak X-ray signals for fundamental studies in materials science. See Letter p.191 Stimulated X-ray emission from condensed matter Techniques such as resonant inelastic X-ray scattering are powerful probes of the fundamental electronic and vibrational excitations of materials, but very high photon densities are required to extract the relatively weak signals of interest, so high that sample damage can result. Martin Beye and colleagues now show how using X-ray free-electron lasers can, in principle, get around this problem by inducing stimulated X-ray emission from the sample. Using silicon as an example, they show that such lasers can induce stimulated X-ray emission from a solid sample, providing a superior probe for low-energy excitations and their dispersion in matter. Stimulated X-ray emission has previously been demonstrated in gas, but its realization in a solid system should open up a host of new experimental possibilities.