Paving the way to a tabletop X-ray laser

Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder have developed a technique to generate laser-like X-ray beams, removing an obstacle in the quest to build a tabletop X-ray laser.

For nearly half a century, scientists have been trying to build a cost-effective and reasonably sized X-ray laser to provide super-high imaging resolution, according to CU-Boulder physics professors Henry Kapteyn and Margaret Murnane, who led the project. Most of today's X-ray lasers require so much power that they rely on fusion laser facilities the size of football stadiums, making their use impractical.

‘We've come up with a good end run around the requirement for a monstrous power source,’ Kapteyn said.

If they can extend the new technique all the way into the hard X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum, which they think is just a matter of time because there are no physical principles blocking the way, the ramifications would be felt in numerous fields.