Applications of Parametric-Down Conversion of X rays

Pmetric-down conversion (PDC) has been studied extensively at optical wavelengths. The extension of this effect into X-ray wavelengths offers many advantages due to the high spatial resolution and the extremely low noise of commercial X-ray detectors. My talk comprises of two such applications:

1. Parametric-Down Conversion of X rays into the Optical Regime

Nonlinear interactions of X-rays and optical radiations can provide insight into the microscopic structure of chemical bonds and the valence electron density of crystals and into light-matter interactions at the atomic-scale resolution [1]. We observe parametrically down converted X-ray signal photons that correspond to idler photons at optical wavelengths for the first time [2]. The results demonstrate a new method for probing valence-electron charges and microscopic optical responses of crystals at the atomic-scale resolution.

2. Ghost imaging of X ray paired photons

PDC is one of the major sources for the generation of non-classical states of light. This type of radiation is extensively used to study numerous quantum phenomena at optical wavelengths. Despite the potential for research with X-rays, no application of X-ray PDC generated pairs has been reported. We observe ghost imaging by using parametrically down-converted X-ray photon pairs [3]. We reconstruct the images of slits with nominally zero background levels. Our procedure can lead to the observations of many quantum phenomena at X-ray wavelengths.

References

[1] I. Freund and B. F. Levine, Phys. Rev. Lett. 25, 1241 (1970).

[2] A. Schori, C. Bömer, D. Borodin, S. P. Collins, B. Detlefs, M. Moretti Sala, S. Yudovich, and S. Shwartz, Phys. Rev. Lett., 119, 253902 (2017).

[3] A. Schori, D. Borodin, K. Tamasaku, and S. Shwartz, Phys. Rev. Lett., submitted (2018)