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Ultrafast X-ray pulse characterization at free-electron lasers

Nature Photonics volume 6, pages 852–857 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The ability to fully characterize ultrashort, ultra-intense X-ray pulses at free-electron lasers (FELs) will be crucial in experiments ranging from single-molecule imaging to extreme-timescale X-ray science. This issue is especially important at current-generation FELs, which are primarily based on self-amplified spontaneous emission and radiate with parameters that fluctuate strongly from pulse to pulse. Using single-cycle terahertz pulses from an optical laser, we have extended the streaking techniques of attosecond metrology to measure the temporal profile of individual FEL pulses with 5 fs full-width at half-maximum accuracy, as well as their arrival on a time base synchronized to the external laser to within 6 fs r.m.s. Optical laser-driven terahertz streaking can be utilized at any X-ray photon energy and is non-invasive, allowing it to be incorporated into any pump–probe experiment, eventually characterizing pulses before and after interaction with most sample environments.

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Figure 1: Schematic of single-shot, single-cycle terahertz streaking measurement.
Figure 2: Terahertz streaking experiment set-up.
Figure 3: Averaged spectrogram.
Figure 4: Single-shot FEL pulse power profile on the pump–probe laser time base.
Figure 5: Measured arrival time jitter.

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Acknowledgements

The authors owe special thanks to the scientific and technical staff at FLASH at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, for operation and delivery of the SASE–FEL beam. Portions of this work were funded by the Max Planck Society through institutional support for the Max Planck Research Department for Structural Dynamics at the University of Hamburg, by the Munich Centre for Advanced Photonics, and by the Science Foundation Ireland PI (grant no. 07/IN.1/I1771), IRCSET and the EXTATIC EMJD. N.M.K. is grateful to European XFEL GmbH and to the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) for hospitality and financial support. He also acknowledges financial support from the programme ‘Physics with Accelerators and Reactors in West Europe’ of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.

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Author notes

  1. I. Grguraš, A. R. Maier and C. Behrens: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max-Planck Research Department for Structural Dynamics, University of Hamburg, Center for Free Electron Laser Science, Notkestrasse 85, Hamburg, 22607, Germany

    I. Grguraš, M. C. Hoffmann & A. L. Cavalieri

  2. Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Hans-Kopfermann-Strasse 1, Garching, 85748, Germany

    A. R. Maier

  3. Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, Am Coulombwall 1, Garching, 85746, Germany

    A. R. Maier

  4. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestrasse 85, Hamburg, 22607, Germany

    C. Behrens, S. Düsterer & H. Schlarb

  5. European XFEL, Albert-Einstein-Ring 19, Hamburg, 22761, Germany

    T. Mazza, P. Radcliffe, N. M. Kabachnik, Th. Tschentscher & M. Meyer

  6. School of Physical Science and National Center for Plasma Science and Technology (NCPST), Dublin City University, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, Ireland

    T. J. Kelly & J. T. Costello

  7. Departamento de Fisica de Materiales, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, San Sebastian/Donostia, E-20018, Spain

    A. K. Kazansky

  8. IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, E-48011, Spain

    A. K. Kazansky

  9. Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), San Sebastian/Donostia, E-20018, Spain

    A. K. Kazansky & N. M. Kabachnik

  10. Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991, Russia

    N. M. Kabachnik

  11. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, 94025, California, USA

    M. C. Hoffmann

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  1. I. Grguraš
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Contributions

A.L.C., M.C.H. and H.S. conceived the project. I.G. and M.C.H. designed and executed the experiments. C.B., A.L.C., J.T.C, S.D., T.J.K., A.R.M., M.M., T.M., P.R., H.S. and Th.T. assisted in experimental realization. C.B., A.L.C., I.G., M.C.H., A.K.K., N.M.K., A.R.M., T.M., M.M., H.S. and Th.T. analysed and/or interpreted the data. A.L.C., S.D. and M.M. contributed materials to the experiments. A.L.C., J.T.C., I.G., M.C.H., M.M., H.S. and Th.T. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. L. Cavalieri.

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Grguraš, I., Maier, A., Behrens, C. et al. Ultrafast X-ray pulse characterization at free-electron lasers. Nature Photon 6, 852–857 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2012.276

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