We demonstrate the feasibility of phase-contrast imaging with an ultrafast laser-based hard x-ray source. Hard x rays are generated during the interaction of a high-intensity femtosecond laser pulse (10TW,60fs,10Hz) focused onto solid target in a very small spot (3μm diam). Such a novel x-ray source has a number of advantages over other sources previously used for phase-contrast imaging: It is very compact and much cheaper than a synchrotron, it has higher power and better x-ray spectrum control than a microfocal x-ray tube, and it has much higher repetition rate than an x-pinch source. The Kα line at 17keV produced using a solid Mo target, and the in-line imaging geometry have been utilized in this study. Phase-contrast images of test objects and biological samples have been realized. The characteristics of the images are the significant enhancement of interfaces due to an x-ray phase shift that reveal details that were hardly observable, or even undetectable, in absorption images and suppression of optically dense structures well defined in the absorption images. Our study indicates that the absorption and the phase-contrast images obtained with an ultrafast laser-based x-ray source provide complementary information about the imaged objects, thus enriching our arsenal of research tools for laboratory or clinic-based biomedical imaging.

The 2D projection phase-contrast imaging performance of the ultrafast laser-based x-ray (ULX) source has been investigated. The potential of such a novel x-ray source has been assessed by imaging a reference object (Contrast Detail Evaluation phantom) in the in-line holography geometry and by applying a simple 1D numerical model to the data analysis. The results indicate that the ULX is a promising technique for 2D projection phase-contrast imaging and for implementation of phase-contrast micro-Computed Tomography (μ-CT). This is because by using high contrast laser pulse ULX simultaneously provides a very small x-ray source size along with a high average x-ray flux. In addition, due to the ultrashort x-ray burst duration, ULX might allow practical implementation of ultrafast phase-contrast stroboscopy and time-of-flight based electronic scatter rejection. This technique is also of interest for time resolved radiography to follow shock waves and radiative fronts propagating in an opaque matter.

We describe here the present status of the Advanced Laser Light Source~ALLS! facility, a state-of-the-art multi-beam Ti:sapphire laser system presently under construction in Canada. ALLS is a national user facility to be commissioned in 2005 at the INRS campus near Montreal. The 25 fs ALLS multi-beam laser system has three components, each with different repetition rate and output energy. These multiple laser beams will be used to generate a "rainbow" of femtosecond pulses from the far infrared to hard X-rays, which can be combined to perform unique experiments, such as dynamic molecular imaging. In this paper, we describe two examples of experiments that are planned by our group with the ALLS facility. The first is the highly efficient generation of high-order harmonics using ablation medium. We demonstrate the generation of up to the 53 rd harmonics~l ϭ 15 nm! of a Ti:sapphire laser pulse~150 fs, 10 mJ!, using pre-pulse~210 ps, 24 mJ! produced boron ablation as the nonlinear medium. The second example is the demonstration of in-line phase-contrast imaging with an ultrafast~300 fs! laser-based hard X-ray source~Mo K-a line!. Images of biological samples have shown great enhancement of contrast due to this technique, distinguishing details that are barely observable or even undetectable in absorption images.

Hard x-ray (8-100 keV) spectrum emission from plasma produced by femtosecond laser solid target interactions and Kα x-ray conversion efficiency have been studied as a function of laser intensity (10 17 W/cm 2 ~ 10 19 W/cm 2 ), pulse duration (70 fs ~ 400 fs), laser pulse fluence and laser wavelength (800 nm and 400 nm). The Ag Kα x-ray conversion efficiency produced by a laser pulse at 800 nm with an intensity I = 4x10 18 W/cm 2 can reach 2x10 -5 . We discuss the behaviour of Kα conversion efficiency scaling laws as a function of the laser parameters. We found that the Kα x-ray conversion efficiency is more dependent on laser fluence than on pulse duration or laser pulse intensity. The conversion efficiency exhibits a similar value at I ~ 1x10 18 W/cm 2 when we work with a high contrast laser pulse at 400 nm or with a low contrast laser pulse at 800 nm, but in the first case it presents a higher scaling law. Consequently, the use of 400 nm laser pulses could be an effective method to optimize the Kα x-ray emission via vacuum heating mechanisms.

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