Transverse coherence properties of X-ray beams in third-generation synchrotron radiation sources

This article describes a complete theory of spatial coherence for undulator radiation sources. Current estimations of coherence properties often assume that undulator sources are quasi-homogeneous, like thermal sources, and rely on the application of the van Cittert-Zernike theorem for calculating the degree of transverse coherence. Such assumption is not adequate when treating third generation light sources, because the vertical(geometrical) emittance of the electron beam is comparable or even much smaller than the radiation wavelength in a very wide spectral interval that spans over four orders of magnitude (from 0.1 Angstrom up to 10^3 Angstrom). Sometimes, the so-called Gaussian-Schell model, that is widely used in statistical optics in the description of partially-coherent sources, is applied as an alternative to the quasi-homogeneous model. However, as we will demonstrate, this model fails to properly describe coherent properties of X-ray beams from non-homogeneous undulator sources. As a result, a more rigorous analysis is required. We propose a technique, based on statistical optics and Fourier optics, to explicitly calculate the cross-spectral density of an undulator source in the most general case, at any position after the undulator. Our theory, that makes consistent use of dimensionless analysis, allows relatively easy treatment and physical understanding of many asymptotes of the parameter space, together with their region of applicability. Particular emphasis is given to the asymptotic situation when the horizontal emittance is much larger than the radiation wavelength, and the vertical emittance is arbitrary. This case is practically relevant for third generation synchrotron radiation sources.Comment: 71 pages, 20 figures - Version accepted for publication in Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research,

Photon diagnostics at the FLASH THz beamline

The THz beamline at FLASH, DESY, provides both tunable (1–300 THz) narrow-bandwidth (∼10%) and broad-bandwidth intense (up to 150 uJ) THz pulses delivered in 1 MHz bursts and naturally synchronized with free-electron laser X-ray pulses. Combination of these pulses, along with the auxiliary NIR and VIS ultrashort lasers, supports a plethora of dynamic investigations in physics, material science and biology. The unique features of the FLASH THz pulses and the accelerator source, however, bring along a set of challenges in the diagnostics of their key parameters: pulse energy, spectral, temporal and spatial profiles. Here, these challenges are discussed and the pulse diagnostic tools developed at FLASH are presented. In particular, a radiometric power measurement is presented that enables the derivation of the average pulse energy within a pulse burst across the spectral range, jitter-corrected electro-optical sampling for the full spectro-temporal pulse characterization, spatial beam profiling along the beam transport line and at the sample, and a lamellar grating based Fourier transform infrared spectrometer for the on-line assessment of the average THz pulse spectra. Corresponding measurement results provide a comprehensive insight into the THz beamline capabilities

Opportunities for Two-Color Experiments in the Soft X-ray Regime at the European XFEL

X-ray pump/X-ray probe applications are made possible at X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facilities by generating two X-ray pulses with different wavelengths and controllable temporal delay. In order to enable this capability at the European XFEL, an upgrade project to equip the soft X-ray SASE3 beamline with a magnetic chicane is underway. In the present paper we describe the status of the project, its scientific focus and expected performance, including start-to-end simulations of the photon beam transport up to the sample, as well as recent experimental results demonstrating two-color lasing at photon energies of 805 eV + 835 eV and 910 eV + 950 eV. Additionally, we discuss methods to analyze the spectral properties and the intensity of the generated radiation to provide on-line diagnostics for future user experiments

Statistical properties of SASE FEL radiation: Experimental results from the VUV FEL at the TESLA test facility at DESY

This paper presents an experimental study of the statistical properties of the radiation from a SASE FEL. The experiments were performed at the TESLA Test Facility VUV SASE FEL at DESY operating in a high-gain linear regime with a gain of about 10 6 . It is shown that fluctuations of the output radiation energy follows a gamma-distribution. We also measured for the first time the probability distribution of SASE radiation energy after a narrow-band monochromator. The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions, the energy fluctuations after the monochromator follow a negative exponential distribution

Statistical properties of SASE FEL radiation: Experimental results from the VUV FEL at the TESLA test facility at DESY

This paper presents an experimental study of the statistical properties of the radiation from a SASE FEL. The experiments were performed at the TESLA Test Facility VUV SASE FEL at DESY operating in a high-gain linear regime with a gain of about 10 6 . It is shown that fluctuations of the output radiation energy follows a gamma-distribution. We also measured for the first time the probability distribution of SASE radiation energy after a narrow-band monochromator. The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions, the energy fluctuations after the monochromator follow a negative exponential distribution

Longitudinal space charge amplifier

Longitudinal space charge (LSC) driven microbunching instability in electron beam formation systems of X-ray FELs is a recently discovered effect hampering beam instrumentation and FEL operation. The instability was observed in different facilities in infrared and visible wavelength ranges. In this paper we propose to use such an instability for generation of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and X-ray radiation. A typical longitudinal space charge amplifier (LSCA) consists of few amplification cascades (drift space plus chicane) with a short undulator behind the last cascade. If the amplifier starts up from the shot noise, the amplified density modulation has a wide band, on the order of unity. The bandwidth of the radiation within the central cone is given by inverse number of undulator periods. A wavelength compression could be an attractive option for LSCA since the process is broadband, and a high compression stability is not required. LSCA can be used as a cheap addition to the existing or planned short-wavelength FELs. In particular, it can produce the second color for a pump-probe experiment. It is also possible to generate attosecond pulses in the VUV and X-ray regimes. Some user experiments can profit from a relatively large bandwidth of the radiation, and this is easy to obtain in LSCA scheme. Finally, since the amplification mechanism is broadband and robust, LSCA can be an interesting alternative to self-amplified spontaneous emission free electron laser (SASE FEL) in the case of using laser-plasma accelerators as drivers of light sources. © (2013) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only