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This article didn't tell me much about how the machine works. Further searching showed that it is a compact x-ray source that works on the principle of inverse

This article didn't tell me much about how the machine works. Further searching showed that it is a compact x-ray source that works on the principle of inverse Compton scattering: https://indico.jacow.org/event/44/contributions/440/ https://indico.jacow.org/event/44/contributions/440/ A tunable, tabletop, Inverse Compton Scattering (ICS) hard X-ray source is being designed and built at Eindhoven University of Technology as part of a European Interreg program between The Netherlands and Belgium. This compact X-ray source will bridge the gap between conventional lab sources and synchrotrons: The X-ray photon energy will be generated between 1 and 100 keV with a brilliance typically a few orders of magnitude above the best available lab sources. In the ICS process photons from a laser pulse bounce off a relativistic electron bunch, turning them into X-ray photons through the relativistic Doppler effect. There's a presentation slide deck here with more details: https://indico.cern.ch/event/1088510/contributions/4577523/attachments/2345297/3999135/XLS%20complementary%20use-SmartLight%2020210911.pdf https://indico.cern.ch/event/1088510/contributions/4577523/a...

itishappy 2y ago
Great find on that presentation. > In the ICS process photons from a laser pulse bounce off a relativistic electron bunch, turning them into X-ray photons through the relativistic Doppler effect. They make it sound so simple. Just bounce off a big thing moving towards you to absorb some of it's energy. Fond memories of the time I discovered this effect for myself using a medicine ball and a friend's hamster I was petsitting at the time.
- Arrath 2y ago
  > Fond memories of the time I discovered this effect for myself using a medicine ball and a friend's hamster I was petsitting at the time. Uh..
  - _carbyau_ 2y ago
    This mental picture is even better given the TFA's effect so described used the word "relativistic". That hamster time travelled - briefly.
    - pfdietz 2y ago
      I'm sure it underwent contraction along one axis.
    - itishappy 2y ago
      Time certainly seemed to slow down for me! Gracie was uninjured, for those concerned. Caught her gently. Learning experience. Future experimentation was done with a lacrosse ball.
superkuh 2y ago
I was going to compare this to the existing Cool-X Pyroelectric X-ray generator (https://www.amptek.com/internal-products/obsolete-products/cool-x-pyroelectric-x-ray-generator https://www.amptek.com/internal-products/obsolete-products/c...) but after seeing those slides the intensity of the output is not really comparable. Pyroelectric accelerators/hard x-ray machines can be only a thumb drive in size but they're a weak trigger-pull squirt gun to this things' relative fire hose of hard x-ray photons.
richk449 2y ago
Similar machine at Arizona state university: https://news.asu.edu/20230205-discoveries-firstofitskind-instrument-officially-ushers-new-era-xray-science https://news.asu.edu/20230205-discoveries-firstofitskind-ins...
- SiempreViernes 2y ago
  Kinda similar, the Arizona one has a beam line that alone is 10 meters and requires three separate rooms, the Belgian one is maybe 3-4 m long in total.
deleted 2y ago
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itishappy 2y ago

Great find on that presentation. > In the ICS process photons from a laser pulse bounce off a relativistic electron bunch, turning them into X-ray photons through the relativistic Doppler effect. They make it sound so simple. Just bounce off a big thing moving towards you to absorb some of it's energy. Fond memories of the time I discovered this effect for myself using a medicine ball and a friend's hamster I was petsitting at the time.

Arrath 2y ago
> Fond memories of the time I discovered this effect for myself using a medicine ball and a friend's hamster I was petsitting at the time. Uh..
- _carbyau_ 2y ago
  This mental picture is even better given the TFA's effect so described used the word "relativistic". That hamster time travelled - briefly.
  - pfdietz 2y ago
    I'm sure it underwent contraction along one axis.
  - itishappy 2y ago
    Time certainly seemed to slow down for me! Gracie was uninjured, for those concerned. Caught her gently. Learning experience. Future experimentation was done with a lacrosse ball.

superkuh 2y ago

I was going to compare this to the existing Cool-X Pyroelectric X-ray generator (https://www.amptek.com/internal-products/obsolete-products/cool-x-pyroelectric-x-ray-generator https://www.amptek.com/internal-products/obsolete-products/c...) but after seeing those slides the intensity of the output is not really comparable. Pyroelectric accelerators/hard x-ray machines can be only a thumb drive in size but they're a weak trigger-pull squirt gun to this things' relative fire hose of hard x-ray photons.

richk449 2y ago

Similar machine at Arizona state university: https://news.asu.edu/20230205-discoveries-firstofitskind-instrument-officially-ushers-new-era-xray-science https://news.asu.edu/20230205-discoveries-firstofitskind-ins...

SiempreViernes 2y ago
Kinda similar, the Arizona one has a beam line that alone is 10 meters and requires three separate rooms, the Belgian one is maybe 3-4 m long in total.

deleted 2y ago

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