Exploiting free-electron lasers for time-domain interferometry and quantum optics

Brilliant, ultrashort, and coherent X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) pulses allow for investigation of dynamics at the inherent time and length scale of atoms which I will illustrate at the example of recent data taken in the so-called hidden phase of the Van der Waals material 1T-TaS₂. However, currently missing at X-ray FELs are sequences of phase-locked pulses, desirable for time-domain correlation spectroscopies and coherent quantum control. In this seminar, I will also present a scheme to generate sub-femtosecond, phase-locked X-ray pulse pairs with up to 100 fs delay. This enables time-domain interferometry, such as the X-ray analog of the ubiquitous Fourier transform infrared spectrometer or resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, and, more generally, all of nonlinear and quantum optics requiring coherent copies of beams. S. Reiche, G. Knopp, B. Pedrini, E. Prat, G. Aeppli & S. Gerber, PNAS 119, e2117906119 (2022).