A compact soft X-ray source based on thomson scattering of Coherent Diffraction Radiation

High-brightness and reliable sources in the VUV and the soft X-ray region may be used for numerous applications in such areas as medicine, biology, biochemistry, material science, etc. For that purposes many 3rd generation light sources based on large synchrotron radiation facilities have been built around the world. Moreover, 4th generation light sources based on X-ray free electron lasers are being built in a few world's leading laboratories. However, those installations are very expensive and the access to wider community is very limited. We propose a new approach to produce the intense beams of X-rays in the range of ≤ 500 eV based on compact electron accelerator. The state-of-the-art soft X-ray generation is based on inverse Compton scattering of laser photons. Such method usually requires a dedicated high power laser system, which makes the experiment complicated. We propose a new method for generating soft X-rays. An ultimate goal of the project is to create a compact soft X-ray source based on Thomson scattering of Coherent Diffraction Radiation (CDR) using a small accelerator machine.