Spectral encoding method for measuring the relative arrival time between x-ray/optical pulses

Journal Article · Fri Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Review of Scientific Instruments

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4893657· OSTI ID:22314416

Hartmann, N. ^[1]; Weaver, M.; French, D.; Glownia, J. M.; Bostedt, C.; Chollet, M.; Ding, Y.; Fritz, D. M.; Fry, A. R.; Krzywinski, J.; Lemke, H. T.; Messerschmidt, M.; Schorb, S.; Zhu, D.; White, W. E. ^[1]; Nicholson, D. J. ^[1]; Cryan, J. P. ^[2]; Baker, K. ^[3]; Kane, D. J. ^[4]; others, and

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1. The Linac Coherent Light Source, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States)
2. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720 (United States)
3. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, Livermore, California 94551 (United States)
4. Mesa Photonics, LLC., 1550 Pacheco St., Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 (United States)

The advent of few femtosecond x-ray light sources brings promise of x-ray/optical pump-probe experiments that can measure chemical and structural changes in the 10–100 fs time regime. Widely distributed timing systems used at x-ray Free-Electron Laser facilities are typically limited to above 50 fs fwhm jitter in active x-ray/optical synchronization. The approach of single-shot timing measurements is used to sort results in the event processing stage. This has seen wide use to accommodate the insufficient precision of active stabilization schemes. In this article, we review the current technique for “measure-and-sort” at the Linac Coherent Light Source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The relative arrival time between an x-ray pulse and an optical pulse is measured near the experimental interaction region as a spectrally encoded cross-correlation signal. The cross-correlation provides a time-stamp for filter-and-sort algorithms used for real-time sorting. Sub-10 fs rms resolution is common in this technique, placing timing precision at the same scale as the duration of the shortest achievable x-ray pulses.

• OSTI ID: 22314416
• Journal Information: Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 85, Issue 8; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
ACCURACY
ALGORITHMS
CORRELATIONS
FILTERS
FREE ELECTRON LASERS
LIGHT SOURCES
OPTICAL PUMPING
PULSES
RESOLUTION
REVIEWS
SIGNALS
STANFORD LINEAR ACCELERATOR CENTER
SYNCHRONIZATION
X RADIATION