Pulse Compression of Nd:YAG Laser with Stimulated Brillouin Scattering for Compton Backscattered X-Ray Source

Abstract. Compton backscattered x-ray source is developed in the energy region of a few hundred keV at Kansai Photon Science Institute of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (KPSI-JAEA). A remarkable feature of the Compton backscattered x-ray source is that the generated x-ray beam is a well-collimated and has a definite polarization property. The Compton backscattered x-ray source at KPSI-JAEA consists of the 150-MeV electron beam with the pulse duration of 24 ps accelerated by Microtron accelerator and a Nd:YAG laser with the pulse duration of 23 ns. At the first trial of the X-ray generation, the x-ray flux is not enough for actual use. As an actual x-ray source, it is important to increase the generated x-ray flux as much as possible. Thus, in order to increase the x-ray flux, we develop the pulse compression system for the Nd:YAG laser through the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). The SBS pulse compression is characterized by its high conversion efficiency and by its simplicity of construction. On this article, we describe the present status of the SBS pulse compression for the Compton backscattered x-ray source at KPSI-JAEA.