ThomX is a compact x-ray source based on Compton scattering, installed at IJCLab (Laboratoire de physique des 2 infinis-Irène Joliot-Curie) in Orsay. The machine uses a small electron storage ring and an intense laser pulse stored in a high-finesse optical cavity. This article describes the various subsystems of the machine and their initial results of the commissioning, which began in mid-2021. This first commissioning phase led to the production of <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="in…

Advances in laser technology over the past 25 years have been impressive, in particular, for the Ytterbium technology where, nowadays, kilowatt-class laser systems are available. This technology also led to the possibility to provide hundreds of kilowatts of laser power by the use of enhancement cavities. We report here on the demonstration of a stable 500 kW average laser power in a high-finesse enhancement cavity. It paves the way toward systems providing laser power in excess of 1 MW and opens the door to a bre…

The Gamma Factory proof of principle experiment aims at colliding laser pulses with ultrarelativistic partially stripped ion beams at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron. Its goals include the first demonstration of fast cooling of ultrarelativistic ion beams and opening up many possibilities for new physics measurements in various domains from atomic physics to particle physics. A high average-power, pulsed laser system delivering approximately 200 kW needs to be implemented for this aim. This is possible thanks to…

Nuclear resonance fluorescence experiments typically require high rates of monochromatic photons due to the narrow linewidth of these resonances. Inverse Compton scattering sources are used to perform these experiments. Their intrinsic excellent monochromaticity is however spoiled by a variety of unavoidable imperfections related to the electron and laser beams. Some projects aim at reaching one per-mille of energy bandwidth, which requires attaining excellent brilliance of the electron beam but also a careful opt…

The Gamma Factory project offers the possibility of creating novel research tools by producing relativistic beams of highly ionised atoms in CERN’s accelerator complex and exciting their atomic degrees of freedom by lasers to produce strongly collimated high-energy photon beams. Intensity of such beams would exceed by several orders of magnitude the ones offered by the presently operating light sources, in the particularly interesting energy domain from about 100 keV to above 400 MeV. In this energy regime, the hi…