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Title: Soft x-ray free-electron laser induced damage to inorganic scintillators

Journal Article · · Optical Materials Express
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.5.000254· OSTI ID:1223351
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [5];  [7];  [8];  [8];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11] more »;  [11];  [12];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [15];  [16];  [17];  [2] « less
  1. Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR), Prague (Czech Republic). Inst. of Physics; Charles Univ. (Czech Republic)
  2. Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR), Prague (Czech Republic). Inst. of Physics
  3. Charles Univ. (Czech Republic)
  4. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland); European XFEL CmbH, Hamburg (Germany)
  5. European XFEL CmbH, Hamburg (Germany)
  6. European XFEL CmbH, Hamburg (Germany); Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Hamburg (Germany)
  7. Univ. Bordeaux (France)
  8. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)
  9. Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Hamburg (Germany); Univ. of Hamburg (Germany)
  10. Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, Hamburg (Germany); FOM Inst. DIFFER (The Netherlands)
  11. Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS), Warsaw (Poland)
  12. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  13. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Inst. de minéralogie, Paris (France)
  14. Technische Univ. Wien (Germany)
  15. RIKEN, Hyogo (Japan)
  16. Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovak Republic)
  17. P. J. Šafárik Univ. (Slovak Republic)

An irreversible response of inorganic scintillators to intense soft x-ray laser radiation was investigated at the FLASH (Free-electron LASer in Hamburg) facility. Three ionic crystals, namely, Ce:YAG (cerium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet), PbWO4 (lead tungstate), and ZnO (zinc oxide), were exposed to single 4.6 nm ultra-short laser pulses of variable pulse energy (up to 12 μJ) under normal incidence conditions with tight focus. Damaged areas produced with various levels of pulse fluences, were analyzed on the surface of irradiated samples using differential interference contrast (DIC) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The effective beam area of 22.2 ± 2.2 μm2 was determined by means of the ablation imprints method with the use of poly(methyl methacrylate) - PMMA. Applied to the three inorganic materials, this procedure gave almost the same values of an effective area. The single-shot damage threshold fluence was determined for each of these inorganic materials. The Ce:YAG sample seems to be the most radiation resistant under the given irradiation conditions, its damage threshold was determined to be as high as 660.8 ± 71.2 mJ/cm2. Contrary to that, the PbWO4 sample exhibited the lowest radiation resistance with a threshold fluence of 62.6 ± 11.9 mJ/cm2. The threshold for ZnO was found to be 167.8 ± 30.8 mJ/cm2. Both interaction and material characteristics responsible for the damage threshold difference are discussed in the article.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
P108/11/1312
OSTI ID:
1223351
Journal Information:
Optical Materials Express, Vol. 5, Issue 2; ISSN 2159-3930
Publisher:
Optical Society of America (OSA)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 11 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (24)

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First operation of a free-electron laser generating GW power radiation at 32 nm wavelength journal November 2005
First lasing and operation of an ångstrom-wavelength free-electron laser journal August 2010
Highly coherent and stable pulses from the FERMI seeded free-electron laser in the extreme ultraviolet journal September 2012
Analytic bond-order potential for atomistic simulations of zinc oxide journal June 2006
Conductors, semiconductors, and insulators irradiated with short-wavelength free-electron laser journal February 2007
Effective energy gap of semiconductors under irradiation with an ultrashort VUV laser pulse journal November 2009
Near edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy with x-ray free-electron lasers text January 2009
Czochralski growth of YAG:Ce in a reducing protective atmosphere journal April 1981
Radiation induced formation of color centers in PbWO4 single crystals journal December 1997
Efficiency and radiation hardness of phosphors in a proton beam journal May 1991
Response Time-Shortened Zinc Oxide Scintillator for Accurate Single-Shot Synchronization of Extreme Ultraviolet Free-Electron Laser and Short-Pulse Laser journal May 2011
Influence of excitation density on luminescence decay in Y3Al5O12:Ce and BaF2 crystals excited by free electron laser radiation in VUV journal January 2005
Radiation damage processes in complex-oxide scintillators conference May 2007
Lead tungstate scintillation material
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journal September 2002
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Near edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy with x-ray free-electron lasers journal September 2009
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Fluence scan: an unexplored property of a laser beam journal January 2013
Characteristics of focused soft X-ray free-electron laser beam determined by ablation of organic molecular solids journal January 2007

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