Femtosecond timing synchronization at megahertz repetition rates for an x-ray free-electron laser

A critical challenge of pump-probe experiments with x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) is accurate synchronization of x-ray and optical pulses. At the European XFEL we observed megahertz rate timing jitter of 24.0±12.4fs

Pump–probe capabilities at the SPB/SFX instrument of the European XFEL

Pump–probe experiments at X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) facilities are a powerful tool for studying dynamics at ultrafast and longer timescales. Observing the dynamics in diverse scientific cases requires optical laser systems with a wide range of wavelength, flexible pulse sequences and different pulse durations, especially in the pump source. Here, the pump–probe instrumentation available for measurements at the Single Particles, Clusters, and Biomolecules and Serial Femtosecond Crystallography (SPB/SFX) instrument of the European XFEL is reported. The temporal and spatial stability of this instrumentation is also presented.Keywords: pump–probe experiments; European XFEL; megahertz pump and probe sources; time-resolved experiments

Initial observations of the femtosecond timing jitter at the European XFEL

Intense, ultrashort, and high-repetition-rate X-ray pulses, combined with a femtosecond optical laser, allow pump-probe experiments with fast data acquisition and femtosecond time resolution. However, the relative timing of the X-ray pulses and the optical laser pulses can be controlled only to a level of the intrinsic error of the instrument which, without characterization, limits the time resolution of experiments. This limitation inevitably calls for a precise determination of the relative arrival time, which can be used after measurement for sorting and tagging the experimental data to a much finer resolution than it can be controlled to. The observed root-mean-square timing jitter between the X-ray and the optical laser at the SPB/SFX instrument at European XFEL was 308 fs. This first measurement of timing jitter at the European XFEL provides an important step in realizing ultrafast experiments at this novel X-ray source. A method for determining the change in the complex refractive index of samples is also presented