Aluminum Kα spectra obtained by extremely strong photons with the energy below the K absorption edge

At Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), Stanford, USA, a series of experimental works has been carried out based on the core-level excitation and relaxation process. One recently published paper from Stanford reports the resonant generation of Kα emission from aluminum foil (1μm thick) in a solid-plasma state created by irradiating very strong X-ray free-electron laser pulses (less than 80 fs time width, 1.6×10¹² photons/pulse). In the experiment, quasimonochromatic (0.5% bandwidth) X-ray pulses in the energy range of 1480-1580 eV (below and slightly above the K edge of ground state Al) were focused onto a 3μm diameter spot on the sample, with a corresponding peak intensity in excess of 10¹⁷ W/cm². To analyze the X-ray spectra, the research group employed a wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectrometer with a flat ADP (101) crystal and an X-ray CCD camera. Since the same atom can absorb multiple photons contained in the single pulse time width, with L-shell holes being created and leading to the excitation of a K-shell electron into one of these L-holes, the Kα X-rays are produced. The research group studied many such emission spectra produced by tuning the XFEL energy to the K-L transitions of those highly charged ions that have transition energies below the K edge of the cold material. It was also found that resonance emission peaks broaden significantly, and this was explained as opacity effects. Because of the intensity-dependent optical depth, the transparent sample at low intensity thickens optically with an intense XFEL pulse. For more information, see the paper, "Resonant Kα Spectroscopy of Solid-Density Aluminum Plasmas", B. I. Cho et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 109, 245003 (2012).