Dresden and Paris researchers achieve breakthrough in compact laser technology

Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the SOLEIL synchrotron in Paris have achieved a breakthrough in developing compact free-electron lasers (FEL). The team successfully operated a seeded laser-plasma FEL in a stable high-gain regime, where light power grows exponentially.

This advancement aims to significantly reduce the size of traditional FEL facilities. While large-scale installations like the European XFEL require acceleration paths of approximately 1.7 kilometers, a laser-plasma accelerator can achieve high electron energies over just a few millimeters, potentially shortening the required distance by a factor of 1,000.

In this current stage, the setup produced ultraviolet light flashes with a wavelength of 272 nm and pulse energies of 45 nJ. While the long-term goal is to produce X-ray radiation, the current results demonstrate a successful step toward miniaturizing complex light-generation technology.