To correct this, the researchers sent some weak pulses of visible laser light into the gas in the opposite direction of the laser beam generating the X-rays. The weak laser beam manipulates the electrons plucked from the argon atoms, whose emissions are out of sync with the main beam, and then slams them back into the atoms to generate X-rays at just the right time, intensifying the strength of the beam by over a hundred times.

"Think of a kid on a swing," Kapteyn said. "If you keep pushing at the right time the swing goes higher and higher, but if you don't push it at the right time, you'll eventually stop it.


"What we found is essentially another beam of light to control exactly when the swing is getting pushed. By putting the light in the right place, we don't allow the swing to be pushed at the wrong time."

The team plans to continue the research through the Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Science and Technology, a National Science Foundation-supported center comprised of researchers from CU-Boulder, Colorado State University and the University of California at Berkeley. The current research was supported with NSF grants.

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