X-ray emission from layered media irradiated by an x-ray free-electron laser

This article presents a computational study of the x-ray fluorescence induced by the irradiation of thin layered media by intense, short x-ray pulses. The treatment is based on a numerical solution of the Helmholtz wave-equation both for the pump and for the fluorescence signal. Consistently with a possible heating of the medium during the x-ray pulse, complex refractive indices are calculated at each time step from the results of an underlying treatment of atomic physics. In the context of an important core-hole production as a result of photoionization, we discuss the peculiarities of the resulting amplified fluorescence grazing emission and of the Bragg diffraction which can be realized at some angles inside a multilayer material or even in a perfect crystal. * Electronic address: olivier.peyrusse@univ-amu.fr