High repetition rate and coherent Free-Electron Laser in the tender X-rays based on the Echo-Enabled Harmonic Generation of an Ultra-Violet Oscillator pulse

Fine time-resolved analysis of matter - i.e. spectroscopy and photon scattering - in the linear response regime requires a fs-scale pulsed, high repetition rate, fully coherent X-ray source. A seeded Free-Electron Laser (FEL) driven by a Super-Conducting Linac, generating $10^{8}$-$10^{10}$ coherent photons at 2-5 keV with abou 0.5 MHz of repetition rate, can address this need. The seeding scheme proposed is the Echo-Enabled Harmonic Generation, alimented by a FEL Oscillator working at 13.6 nm with a cavity based on Mo-Si mirrors. The whole chain of the X-ray generation is here described by means of start-to-end simulations. Comparisons with the Self Amplified Spontaneus Emission and a fresh-bunch harmonic cascade performed with similar electron beams show the validity of this scheme

H∞ LIDAR odometry for spacecraft relative navigation

Current light detection and ranging (LIDAR) based odometry solutions that are used for spacecraft relative navigation suffer from quite a few deficiencies. These include an off-line training requirement and relying on the iterative closest point (ICP) that does not guarantee a globally optimum solution. To encounter this, the authors suggest a robust architecture that overcomes the problems of current proposals by combining the concepts of 3D local feature matching with an adaptive variant of the H∞ recursive filtering process. Trials on real laser scans of an EnviSat model demonstrate that the proposed architecture affords at least one order of magnitude better accuracy compared to ICP

Synchronised TeraHertz radiation and soft X-rays produced in a FEL oscillator

In this paper, we present the generalities of the Compton interaction process; we analyse the different paradigms of Inverse Compton Sources, implemented or in commissioning phase at various facilities, or proposed as future projects. We present an overview of the state of the art, with a discussion of the most demanding challenges

State of the art of high-flux Compton/Thomson X-rays sources

In this paper, we present the generalities of the Compton interaction process; we analyse the different paradigms of Inverse Compton Sources, implemented or in commissioning phase at various facilities, or proposed as future projects. We present an overview of the state of the art, with a discussion of the most demanding challenges

Coherent, high repetition rate tender x-ray free-electron laser seeded by an extreme ultra-violet free-electron laser oscillator

A seeded FEL driven by a linac based on super conducting cavities, generating 108-1010 coherent photons per shot at 2-5 keV with 0.2-1 MHz of repetition rate, can address the need of a source devoted to fine analysis of matter using the linear spectroscopy technique. The seeding scheme described hereafter is a multi-stage cascade upshifting the radiation frequency by a factor 20-40. The x-ray range can be achieved with a seed constituted by a coherent flash in the extreme ultraviolet range provided by an FEL oscillator operating at 12-14 nm. The whole chain of x-ray generation is described by means of start-to-end three-dimensional simulations

Granulomatous Reactivation during the Course of a Leprosy Infection: Reaction or Relapse

Leprosy is a serious infectious disease whose treatment still poses some challenges. Patients are usually treated with a combination of antimicrobial drugs called multidrug therapy. Although this treatment is effective against Mycobacterium leprae, the bacillus that causes leprosy, patients may develop severe inflammatory reactions during treatment. These reactions may be either attributed to an improvement in the immunological reactivity of the patient along with the treatment, or to relapse of the disease due to the proliferation of remaining bacilli. In certain patients these two conditions may be difficult to differentiate. The present study addresses the histopathology picture of and the M. leprae bacilli in sequential biopsies taken from lesions of patients who presented such reactions aiming to improve the differentiation of the two conditions. This is important because these reactions are one of the major causes of the disabilities of the patients with leprosy, and should be treated early and appropriately. Our results show that the histopathology picture alone is not sufficient, and that bacilli's counting is necessary

Two-pass two-way acceleration in a superconducting continuous wave linac to drive low jitter x-ray free electron lasers

We present a design study of an innovative scheme to generate high rep rate (MHz-class) GeV electron beams by adopting a two-pass two-way acceleration in a Superconducting (SC) linac operated in Continuous Wave (CW) mode. The electron beam is accelerated twice by being re-injected in opposite direction of propagation into the linac after the first passage. Acceleration in opposite directions is accomplished thanks to standing waves supported in RF cavities. The task of recirculating the electron beam when it leaves the linac after first pass is performed by a Bubble-shaped Arc Compressor composed by a sequence of Double Bend Achromat. In this paper we address the main issues inherent to the two-pass acceleration process and the preservation of the electron beam quality parameters (emittance, energy spread, peak current) required to operate X-ray Free Electron Lasers with low jitters in the amplitude, spectral and temporal domain, as achieved by operating in seeding and/or oscillator mode a CW FEL up to 1 MHz rep rate. Detailed start-to-end simulations are shown to assess the capability of this new scheme to double the electron beam energy as well as to compress the electron bunch length from picoseconds down to tens of femtoseconds. The advantage of such a scheme is to halve the requested linac length for the same final electron beam energy, which is typically in the few GeV range, as needed to drive an X-ray FEL. The AC power to supply the cryogenic plant is also significantly reduced with respect to a conventional single-pass SC linac for the same final energy. We are reporting also X-ray FEL simulations for typical values of wavelengths of interest (in the 200 eV \u2013 8 keV photon energy range) to better illustrate the potentiality of this new scheme