Terawatt femtosecond laser storage cavity with cholesteric liquid crystals for an x-ray source based on Compton scattering.

In laser Compton scattering systems, the limitation to higher average brightness is the low repetition rate of high-power lasers. We propose and demonstrate for the first time, as far as we know, a simple method by which x-ray yield could be enhanced nearly 2 orders of magnitude per second. The method, utilizing cholesteric liquid crystals as the entrance mirror of the laser storage cavity, can be used not only for storing femtosecond laser pulses with a peak power of several terawatts, but also to make high coupling efficiency and energy utilization efficiency accessible.