These proceedings comprise a selection of invited and contributed papers presented at the 15th International Conference on X-Ray Lasers (ICXRL 2016), held at the Nara Kasugano International Forum, Japan, from May 22 to 27, 2016. This conference was part of an ongoing series dedicated to recent developments in the science and technology of x-ray lasers and other coherent x-ray sources with additional focus on supporting technologies, instrumentation and applications. The book showcases recent advances in the generation of intense, coherent x-rays, the development of practical devices and their applications across a wide variety of fields. It also discusses emerging topics such as plasma-based x-ray lasers, 4th generation accelerator-based sources and higher harmonic generations, as well as other x-ray generation schemes.

The high scienti?c interest in coherent X-ray light sources has stimulated world-wide e?orts in developing X-ray lasers. In this book a particularly promising approach is described, the free-electron laser (FEL), which is p- sued worldwide and holds the promise to deliver ultra-bright X-ray pulses of femtosecond duration. Other types of X-ray lasers are not discussed nor do we try a comparison of the relative virtues and drawbacks of di?erent concepts. The book has an introductory character and is written in the style of a universitytextbookforthemanynewcomerstothe?eldoffree-electronlasers, graduate students as well as accelerator physicists, engineers and technicians; it is not intended to be a scienti?c monograph for the experts in the ?eld. Building on lectures by one of us (J. R.) at the CERN Accelerator School, and motivated by the positive response to a series of seminars on “FEL t- ory for pedestrians”, given by P. S. within the framework of the Academic Training Program at DESY, we have aimed at presenting the theory of the low-gainandthehigh-gainFELinaclearandconcisemathematicallanguage. Particular emphasis is put on explaining and justifying the assumptions and approximations that are needed to obtain the di?erential equations descr- ing the FEL dynamics. Although we have tried our best to be “simple”, the mathematical derivations are certainly not always as simple as one would like them to be. However, we are not aware of any easier approach to the FEL theory. Some of the more involved calculations are put into the appendices.

The main goal of the book is to provide a systematic and didactic approach to the physics and technology of free-electron lasers. Numerous figures are used for illustrating the underlying ideas and concepts and links to other fields of physics are provided. After an introduction to undulator radiation and the low-gain FEL, the one-dimensional theory of the high-gain FEL is developed in a systematic way. Particular emphasis is put on explaining and justifying the various assumptions and approximations that are needed to obtain the differential and integral equations governing the FEL dynamics. Analytical and numerical solutions are presented and important FEL parameters are defined, such as gain length, FEL bandwidth and saturation power. One of the most important features of a high-gain FEL, the formation of microbunches, is studied at length. The increase of gain length due to beam energy spread, space charge forces, and three-dimensional effects such as betatron oscillations and optical diffraction is analyzed. The mechanism of Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission is described theoretically and illustrated with numerous experimental results. Various methods of FEL seeding by coherent external radiation are introduced, together with experimental results. The world’s first soft X-ray FEL, the user facility FLASH at DESY, is described in some detail to give an impression of the complexity of such an accelerator-based light source. The last chapter is devoted to the new hard X-ray FELs which generate extremely intense radiation in the Angstrøm regime. The appendices contain supplementary material and more involved calculations.

Master the physics and understand the current applications of modern X-ray and EUV sources with this fully updated second edition.

Nonlinear Optics, Quantum Optics, and Ultrafast Phenomena with X-Rays is an introduction to cutting-edge science that is beginning to emerge on state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation facilities and will come to flourish with the x-ray free-electron lasers currently being planned. It is intended for the use by scientists at synchrotron radiation facilities working with the combination of x-rays and lasers and those preparing for the science at x-ray free-electron lasers. In the past decade synchrotron radiation sources have experienced a tremendous increase in their brilliance and other figures of merit. This progress, driven strongly by the scientific applications, is still going on and may actually be accelerating with the advent of x-ray free-electron lasers. As a result, a confluence of x-ray and laser physics is taking place, due to the increasing importance of laser concepts, such as coherence and nonlinear optics to the x-ray community and the importance of x-ray optics to the laser-generation of ultrashort pulses of x-rays.

This detailed, comprehensive book describes the fundamental properties of soft X-rays and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation and discusses their applications in a wide variety of fields, including EUV lithography for semiconductor chip manufacture and soft X-ray biomicroscopy. The author begins by presenting the relevant basic principles such as radiation and scattering, wave propagation, diffraction, and coherence. He then goes on to examine a broad range of phenomena and applications. The topics covered include spectromicroscopy, EUV astronomy, synchrotron radiation, and soft X-ray lasers. The author also provides a wealth of useful reference material such as electron binding energies, characteristic emission lines and photo-absorption cross-sections. The book will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers in engineering, physics, chemistry, and the life sciences. It will also appeal to practising engineers involved in semiconductor fabrication and materials science.