Using strong electromagnetic fields to control x-ray processes.

Abstract

Exploration of a new ultrafast-ultrasmall frontier in atomic and molecular physics has begun. Not only is is possible to control outer-shell electron dynamics with intense ultrafast optical lasers, but now control of inner-shell processes has become possible by combining intense infrared/optical lasers with tunable sources of X-ray radiation. This marriage of strong-field laser and X-ray physics has led to the discovery of methods to control reversibly resonant X-ray absorption in atoms and molecules on ultrafast timescales. Using a strong optical dressing field, resonant X-ray absorption in atoms can be markedly suppressed, yielding an example of electromagnetically induced transparency for x rays. Resonant X-ray absorption can also be controlled in molecules using strong non-resonant, polarized laser fields to align the framework of a molecule, and therefore its unoccupied molecular orbitals to which resonant absorption occurs. At higher laser intensities, ultrafast field ionization produces an irreversible change in X-ray absorption. Finally, the advent of X-ray free electron lasers enables first exploration of non-linear X-ray processes.