Abstract

Free-electron lasers can in principle be extended to the x-ray region. The main difficulties of free-electron x-ray lasers are the lack of short period wigglers, suitable electron beams, and the absence of resonant cavities in the x-ray region. Recently, a silicon single crystal diffracting x rays at θ ≈ 90° was proposed for use in making a cavity with reflectivity of 91% at λ = 2.2 Å.¹ A novel free-electron x-ray laser is proposed, which uses the light rectification effect to provide a periodic magnetic field for the wiggler.

© 1986 Optical Society of America