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  • Open Access

Single-pass synchronized two-color attosecond x-ray free-electron laser featuring attosecond time jitter

Chuan Yang1,2,*, Yixuan Liu3, Chao Feng3, Juhao Wu4, and Weiqing Zhang5,†

  • *Contact author: yangc@mail.iasf.ac.cn
  • †Contact author: weiqingzhang@dicp.ac.cn
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023048 – Published 15 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/cw2t-yvwd

Abstract

Two-color attosecond x-ray pulses are the key to advancing the study of ultrafast dynamics in quantum systems. In this work, we propose a single-pass free-electron laser scheme generating synchronized attosecond two-color x-ray pulses with femtosecond separation and tens-of-gigawatts peak power. By modulating a chirped electron beam with an infrared laser, we create a periodic train of ultrashort current spikes. This scheme utilizes the limited gain bandwidth of the free-electron laser as a filter, allowing only two adjacent current spikes with different resonance wavelengths to lase. This scheme holds promise for delivering sub-300-as two-color x-ray pulses with an intrinsic timing jitter below 100 as. This work provides insights and technical support for generating two-color attosecond x-ray free-electron laser pulses with robust time jitter.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023048– Published 15 April, 2026
  • Received 8 December 2025
  • Accepted 25 March 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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