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An international team of scientists has generated the first laser-like beams of X-rays from a tabletop device.
BBC News - X-ray lasers from tabletop device
An international team of scientists has generated the first laser-like beams of X-rays from a tabletop device.
Wow! That's a huge step!
Seems these are not generated by population inversion, though, like most gas lasers. Unless they are just describing it oddly.
The energy for the X-ray beam was supplied by short infrared laser pulses. They are fired at noble gases, where they rip electrons out of the atoms.
So if we just get a pulsed YAG laser and a tube of noble gases we could make a X-ray laser?
"The coherent beam generated in the latest study covers a broad energy spectrum - simultaneously streaming ultraviolet light, X-rays, and all wavelengths in between."
Is this a "white" laser?
I think they mean all wavelengths in between X-rays and UV, so it wouldn't cover the visible spectrum.
It indeed would include the visible spectrum.
The coherent beam generated in the latest study covers a broad energy spectrum - simultaneously streaming ultraviolet light, X-rays, and all wavelengths in between.