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Journal of synchrotron radiation 27(2), 250 - 253 (2020). doi:10.1107/S1600577520001125, Published by Wiley-Blackwell, [S.l.]

Review of scientific instruments 93(11), 115111 (2022). doi:10.1063/5.0097525, The development and characterization of an angle-resolved photoelectron spectrometer, based on the electron time-of-flight concept, for hard x-ray photon diagnostics at the European Free-Electron Laser, are described. The instrument is meant to provide users and operators with pulse-resolved, non-invasive spectral distribution diagnostics, which in the hard x-ray regime is a challenge due to the poor cross-section and high kinetic energy of photoelectrons for the available target gases. We report on the performances of this instrument as obtained using hard x-rays at the PETRA III synchrotron at DESY in multibunch mode. Results are compared with electron trajectory simulations. We demonstrate a resolving power of 10 eV at incident photon energies up to at least 20 keV., Published by American Institute of Physics, [S.l.]

European XFEL has initiated a project to facilitate two-color pump-probe spectroscopy with X-rays at the SASE3 soft X-ray undulator. To this end, the controllable temporal delay between the two X-ray pulses is obtained by a magnetic chicane and an optical delay line (ODL) that delay the electron and X-ray beams, respectively. This article focuses on describing the alignment process of the ODL and its related specification. The distance between the experimental station and the ODL is nearly 500 m, thus if one of the mirrors in the ODL is misaligned, the focus spot experiences a noticeable shift. Moreover, a pulse train can include up to 2700 X-ray pulses with a minimum spacing of 222 ns. An increase in temperature per pulse would just add up if there was no heat removal during that time and the material could be damaged during a pulse train. The question arises whether the X-ray optics can survive the high X-ray peak power during a single pulse. Finally, the present study also investigates the damage issue.

Detectors based on microchannel plates (MCPs) are used to detect radiation from free-electron lasers. Three MCP detectors have been developed by JINR for the European XFEL (SASE1, SASE2 and SASE3 lines). These detectors are designed to operate in a wide dynamic range from the level of spontaneous emission to the SASE saturation level (between a few nJ up to 25 mJ), in a wide wavelength range from 0.05 nm to 0.4 nm for SASE1 and SASE2, and from 0.4 nm to 4.43 nm for SASE3. The detectors measure photon pulse energies with an anode and a photodiode. The photon beam image is observed with an MCP imager with a phosphor screen. At present, the SASE1 and SASE3 MCP detectors are commissioned with XFEL beams. Calibration and first measurements of photon radiation in multibunch mode are performed with the SASE1 and SASE3 MCPs. The MCP detector for SASE2 and its electronics are installed in the XFEL tunnel, technically commissioned, and are now ready for acceptance tests with the X-ray beam.

A growing number of X-ray sources based on the free-electron laser (XFEL) principle are presently under construction or have recently started operation. The intense, ultrashort pulses of these sources will enable new insights in many different fields of science. A key problem is to provide x-ray optical elements capable of collecting the largest possible fraction of the radiation and to focus into the smallest possible focus. As a key step towards this goal, we demonstrate here the first nanofocusing of hard XFEL pulses. We developed diamond based Fresnel zone plates capable of withstanding the full beam of the world's most powerful x-ray laser. Using an imprint technique, we measured the focal spot size, which was limited to 320 nm FWHM by the spectral band width of the source. A peak power density in the focal spot of 4×10(17)W/cm(2) was obtained at 70 fs pulse length.

We present the first pump/probe measurements performed at the SQS instrument of the European XFEL. We obtain the first characterization of the femtosecond temporal resolution and show the feasibility for the investigation of ultrafast dynamics.

Optica 7(6), 716 - (2020). doi:10.1364/OPTICA.396728, 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., Published by OSA, Washington, DC

Applied Sciences 10(8), 2728 (2020). doi:10.3390/app10082728, 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., Published by MDPI, Basel

We report on the development and implementation of single-shot hard X-ray/optical cross-correlation at the European X-ray free-electron laser for characterization of timing jitter and drift at megahertz rate.

Journal of synchrotron radiation 26(4), 1045 - 1051 (2019). doi:10.1107/S1600577519003795, X-ray gas monitors (XGMs) are operated at the European XFEL for non-invasive single-shot pulse energy measurements and average beam position monitoring. They are used for tuning and maintaining the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) operation and for sorting single-shot experimental data according to the pulse-resolved energy monitor data. The XGMs were developed at DESY based on the specific requirements for the European XFEL. In total, six XGM units are continuously in operation. Here, the main principle and experimental setup of an XGM are summarized, and the locations of the six XGMs at the facility are shown. Pulse energy measurements at 0.134 nm wavelength are presented, exceeding 1 mJ obtained with an absolute measurement uncertainty of 7–10%; correlations between different XGMs are shown, from which a SASE1 beamline transmission of 97% is deduced. Additionally, simultaneous position measurements close to the undulator and at the end of the tunnel are shown, along with the correlation of beam position data simultaneously acquired by an XGM and an imager., Published by Wiley-Blackwell, [S.l.]

Commissioning and first operation of an angle-resolved photoelectron spectrometer for non-invasive shot-to-shot diagnostics at the European XFEL soft X-ray beamline are described. The objective with the instrument is to provide the users and operators with reliable pulse-resolved information regarding photon energy and polarization that opens up a variety of applications for novel experiments but also hardware optimization.

Journal of synchrotron radiation 26(4), 1037 - 1044 (2019). doi:10.1107/S1600577519005307, Hard X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) generate intense coherent X-ray beams by passing electrons through undulators, i.e. very long periodic magnet structures, which extend over hundreds of meters. The SASE1 and SASE2 undulator systems of the European XFEL consist of 35 segments with variable-gap planar undulators which are initially tuned to precise on-axis magnetic field strengths in a magnetic measurement laboratory to keep an important quality parameter – the K-value variation from segment to segment – below a certain limit (3 × 10−4 for 12 keV photon energy). After tunnel installation only photon-based methods can determine the K-values of undulator segments with a similar accuracy. The synchrotron radiation from a single or a few segments can be spectrally filtered by a dedicated crystal monochromator (K-monochromator) and recorded with a photodiode or with an imager that provides 2D information, tuned for high sensitivity to detect low photon densities from distant single undulator segments. This instrumentation is applied for electron orbit analysis and optimization, and adjustment of individual undulators in terms of their central magnetic axis with respect to the electron beam. Single undulator segments were analysed by scanning the monochromator crystal angle and detecting the steepest slope of a photodiode signal. Alternatively, in the imaging method, an imager recorded the radiation cone of electrons passing through the undulator segment. From the spatial distribution of the radiation, the K-parameter was determined with a sufficiently high relative accuracy., Published by Wiley-Blackwell, [S.l.]

The European X-ray Free Electron Laser (European XFEL) is a new user facility in the metropolitan area of Hamburg, Germany. It offers ultra-short (femtosecond) and intense (GigaWatt) transversely coherent x-ray laser beams in the soft to hard x-ray domain at MHz repetition rate. Up to 2700 pulses per train will be delivered at 10 Hz train repetition rate. The x-ray diagnostics [1-4] serves the electron machine to achieve lasing by Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE), supports the SASE tuning, and assists to align and commission the photon beam transport. Finally, it delivers non-invasive online beam diagnostic data to the users at the experimental end-stations. In May 2017 the first undulator beamline, SASE1, was successfully commissioned with beam, and First Lasing was detected. This presentation describes the contribution of photon diagnostics during the distinct commissioning phases: Pre-beam checkout, first light from the bending magnets, x-rays from single undulator segments, SASE tuning with many undulator segments, First Lasing, optics alignment for FEL beam transport through the tunnel up to the experimental hutches, and finally beam delivery to first users. Assessed beam properties included per-pulse intensity, beam position, shape, lateral dimensions, and spectral properties. During this period, the machine provided up to 0.1 nm wavelength at up to 1.5 mJ pulse energy, up to 300 FEL pulses per train, and up to 4.5 MHz intra-bunch train repetition.The European X-ray Free Electron Laser (European XFEL) is a new user facility in the metropolitan area of Hamburg, Germany. It offers ultra-short (femtosecond) and intense (GigaWatt) transversely coherent x-ray laser beams in the soft to hard x-ray domain at MHz repetition rate. Up to 2700 pulses per train will be delivered at 10 Hz train repetition rate. The x-ray diagnostics [1-4] serves the electron machine to achieve lasing by Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE), supports the SASE tuning, and assists to align and commission the photon beam transport. Finally, it delivers non-invasive online beam diagnostic data to the users at the experimental end-stations. In May 2017 the first undulator beamline, SASE1, was successfully commissioned with beam, and First Lasing was detected. This presentation describes the contribution of photon diagnostics during the distinct commissioning phases: Pre-beam checkout, first light from the bending magnets, x-rays from single undulator segments, SASE tuning with ...

Hard X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFEL) generate intense coherent X-ray beams by passing electrons through very long periodic magnet structures, which extend over hundreds of meters. The SASE1 and SASE2 undulator systems of the European XFEL consist of 35 segments with variable gap planar undulators which are initially tuned to precise on- axis magnetic field strengths in a magnetic measurement lab to keep a quality parameter, the K-value variation from segment to segment below the pierce parameter. After tunnel installation only photon based methods can determine the K-values of undulator segments with a similar accuracy. The synchrotron radiation from single or a few segments can be spectrally filtered by a dedicated crystal monochromator (K-monochromator) and recorded with either a point detector such as a photo diode or with an imager that provides 2D information, tuned for high sensitivity to detect low photon densities from distant single undulator segments. This instrumentation is applied for electron orbit analysis and optimization, and adjustment of individual undulators in terms of their central magnetic axis with respect to the electron beam. Single undulator segments were analyzed by scanning the monochromator crystal angle and detecting the steepest slope of a photo diode signal. Alternatively in the "electron-kick” method, an imager recorded the two radiation cones of electrons passing through one undulator segment, being kicked laterally and radiating a second time in the next downstream undulator.

Optics letters 44(7), 1650 - 1653 (2019). doi:10.1364/OL.44.001650, 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., Published by OSA, Washington, DC

Physical review / A covering atomic, molecular, and optical physics and quantum information 100(5), 053420 (2019). doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.100.053420, Highly brilliant, coherent, femtosecond x-ray pulses delivered by free-electron lasers (FELs) constitute oneof the pillars of modern ultrafast science. Next generation FEL facilities provide up to megahertz repetitionrates and pulse durations down to the attosecond regime utilizing self-amplification of spontaneous emission.However, the stochastic nature of this generation mechanism demands single-shot pulse characterization toperform meaningful experiments. Here we demonstrate a fast yet robust online analysis technique capableof megahertz-rate mapping of the temporal intensity structure and arrival time of x-ray FEL pulses withfew-femtosecond resolution. We performed angular streaking measurements of both neon photo- and Augerelectrons and show their applicability for a direct time-domain feedback system during ongoing experiments.The fidelity of the real-time pulse characterization algorithm is corroborated by resolving isolated x-ray pulsesand double pulse trains with few-femtosecond substructure, thus paving the way for x-ray-pump–x-ray-probeFEL science at repetition rates compatible with the demands of LCLS-II and European XFEL., Published by Inst., Woodbury, NY

X-ray photon beam diagnostic imagers are located at 24 positions in the European XFEL beam transport system to characterize the X-ray beam properties, and to give feedback for tuning and optimization of the electron acceleration and orbit, the undulators, and the X-ray optics. One year of commissioning allowed experience to be gained with these imagers, which will be reported here. The sensitive Spontaneous Radiation imager is useful for various investigations in spontaneous radiation mode: for undulator adjustments and for low-signal imaging applications. The high-resolution Free-Electron Laser imager, 10 µm spatial resolution, is extensively used for the monitoring of beam position, spot size and shape, gain curve measurements, and also for beam-intensity monitoring. The wide field-of-view pop-in monitors (up to 200 mm) are regularly used for alignment and tuning of the various X-ray optical components like mirrors, slits and monochromators, and also for on-line beam control of a stable beam position at the instruments. The Exit Slit imager after the soft X-ray monochromator provides spectral information of the beam together with multi-channel plate based single-pulse gating. For particular use cases, these special features of the imagers are described. Some radiation-induced degradation of scintillators took place in this initial commissioning phase, providing useful information for better understanding of damage thresholds. Visible-light radiation in the beam pipe generated by upstream bending magnets caused spurious reflections in the optical system of some of the imagers which can be suppressed by aluminium-coated scintillating screens.

The European X-ray Free Electron Laser (EuXFEL) offers intense, coherent femtosecond pulses, resulting in characteristic peak brilliance values a billion times higher than that of conventional synchrotron facilities. Such pulses result in extreme peak radiation levels of the order of terawatts cm−2 for any optical component in the beam and can exceed the ablation threshold of many materials. Diamond is considered the optimal material for such applications due to its high thermal conductivity (2052 W mK−1 at 300 K) and low absorption for hard X-rays. Grating structures were fabricated on free-standing CVD diamond of 10 µm thickness with 500 µm silicon substrate support. The grating structures were produced by electron-beam lithography at the Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland. The grating lines were etched to a depth of 1.2 µm, resulting in an aspect ratio of 16. The characterization measurements with X-rays were performed on transmissive diamond gratings of 150 nm pitch at the P10 beamline of PETRA III, DESY. In this paper, the gratings are briefly described, and a measured diffraction efficiency of 0.75% at 6 keV in the first-order diffraction is shown; the variation of the diffraction efficiency across the grating surface is presented.

Journal of synchrotron radiation 26(5), 1422 - 1431 (2019). doi:10.1107/S1600577519006611, Published by Wiley-Blackwell, [S.l.]

Solid-state ionization chambers are presented based on thin diamond crystals that allow pulse-resolved intensity measurements at a hard X-ray free-electron laser (FEL), up to the 4.5 MHz repetition rate that will become available at the European XFEL. Due to the small X-ray absorption of diamond the thin detectors are semi-transparent which eases their use as non-invasive monitoring devices in the beam. FELs are characterized by strong pulse-to-pulse intensity fluctuations due to the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) process and in many experiments it is mandatory to monitor the intensity of each individual pulse. Two diamond detectors with different electrode materials, beryllium and graphite, were tested as intensity monitors at the XCS endstation of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) using the pink SASE beam at 9 keV. The performance is compared with LCLS standard monitors that detect X-rays backscattered from thin SiN foils placed in the beam. The graphite detector can also be used as a beam position monitor although with rather coarse resolution.

We report an on-going temporal characterization project and method on a shot-to-shot basis for free electron laser pulses by using THz photoelectron spectroscopy at the European XFEL facility. Shot to shot FEL time jitter and pulse profile information can be reconstructed by resolving the photoelectrons energy spectra in an external THz field. Laser based THz generation and optimization, photoelectron generation and detection are described. Further considerations of the temporal resolution based on proposed photoelectron lines are presented and intuitive simulations are made to demonstrate the feasibility of such technique.

The European X-Ray Free-Electron-Laser facility requires diagnostics of its x-ray photon beam. Besides other diagnostic components, imaging stations will be employed for the characterisation of beam properties like position, profile, and pointing, before and after different types of mirrors, slits and monochromators. In combination with soft x-ray grating monochromators or other dispersive devices, imagers can also deliver spectral information. The imagers will usually absorb the beam (invasive devices), however, for some applications they will be partially transmissive to allow for beam pointing monitoring together with a second imaging unit further downstream. For the first commissioning 25 diagnostic imagers are planned at various positions in the photon beam tunnels. Further similar devices are under development for monitoring the beam properties at the experimental stations. The design of theses imaging stations will be described. Initial testing has started and the optimization of some components will be reported. The main components of these imaging stations are: retractable scintillators for conversion of x-rays to visible light, mirrors, optics and CCD / CMOS cameras for image recording, an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber, and the associated control electronics and software. Scintillators and mirrors will be the only components in an ultra-high vacuum chamber. Performance characteristics are addressed, especially mechanical stability, spatial resolution, signal-to-noise properties, and radiation hardness. The challenge in the design is to deal with a wide range of beam properties: photon energies from 0.26 – 25 keV, beam sizes from several 100 μm to several mm, large beam position shifts of up to 120 mm, pulse durations of 10 fs and pulse energies up to 10 mJ which may destroy materials by a single pulse.

International audience; The two single-pass, externally seeded free-electron lasers (FELs) of the FERMI user facility are designed around Apple-II-type undulators that can operate at arbitrary polarization in the vacuum ultraviolet-to-soft x-ray spectral range. Furthermore, within each FEL tuning range, any output wavelength and polarization can be set in less than a minute of routine operations. We report the first demonstration of the full output polarization capabilities of FERMI FEL-1 in a campaign of experiments where the wavelength and nominal polarization are set to a series of representative values, and the polarization of the emitted intense pulses is thoroughly characterized by three independent instruments and methods, expressly developed for the task. The measured radiation polarization is consistently >90% and is not significantly spoiled by the transport optics; differing, relative transport losses for horizontal and vertical polarization become more prominent at longer wavelengths and lead to a non-negligible ellipticity for an originally circularly polarized state. The results from the different polarimeter setups validate each other, allow a cross-calibration of the instruments, and constitute a benchmark for user experiments.

FERMI, based at Elettra (Trieste, Italy) is the first free electron laser (FEL) facility operated for user experiments in seeded mode. Another unique property of FERMI, among other FEL sources, is to allow control of the polarization state of the radiation. Polarization dependence in the study of the interaction of coherent, high field, short-pulse ionizing radiation with matter, is a new frontier with potential in a wide range of research areas. The first measurement of the polarization-state of VUV light from a single-pass FEL was performed at FERMI FEL-1 operated in the 52 nm-26 nm range. Three different experimental techniques were used. The experiments were carried out at the end-station of two different beamlines to assess the impact of transport optics and provide polarization data for the end user. In this paper we summarize the results obtained from different setups. The results are consistent with each other and allow a general discussion about the viability of permanent diagnostics aimed at monitoring the polarization of FEL pulses.

Today's brightest coherent X-ray sources, X-ray free-electron lasers, produce ultrafast X-ray pulses for which full-width at half-maximum durations as short as 3 fs have been measured(1). There has been a marked increase in the popularity of such short pulses now that optical timing techniques have begun to report an X-ray/optical delay below similar to 10 fs r.m.s. errors. As a result, sub-10 fs optical pulses have been implemented at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray beamlines, thus warranting a push to reduce the error in X-ray/optical delay measurements to the ifs level. Here, we report a unique two-dimensional spectrogram measurement of the relative X-ray/optical delay. This easily scalable relative delay measurement already surpasses previous techniques by an order of magnitude with its sub-1 fs temporal resolution and opens up the prospect of time-resolved X-ray measurements to the attosecond community.

X-ray Free-Electron-Laser (XFEL) facilities like the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) in the USA, SACLA in Japan, and the European XFEL under construction in Germany are 4th generation light sources which allow research of at the same time extremely small structures (Angstrom resolution) and extremely fast phenomena (femtosecond resolution). Unlike the pulses from a conventional optical laser, the radiation in these sources is created by the Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) process when electron bunches pass through very long segmented undulators. The shot noise at the origin of this process leads to significant pulse-to-pulse variations of pulse intensity, spectrum, wavefront, temporal properties etc. so that for user experiments an online monitoring of these properties is mandatory. Additionally, the adjustment of the long segmented undulators requires dedicated diagnostics such as an undulator commissioning spectrometer and spontaneous radiation analysis. The extreme brilliance and resulting single-shot damage potential are difficult to handle for any XFEL diagnostics. Apart from the large energy range of operation of the facility from 280eV to 25keV in FEL fundamental, the particular challenge for the European XFEL diagnostics is the high intra bunch train photon pulse repetition rate of 4.5MHz, potentially causing additional damage by high heat loads and making shot-to-shot diagnostics very demanding. This presentation reports on the facility concepts, recent progress in instrumentation development, and the choices to compromise diagnostics performance between resolution/accuracy on one hand and shot-to-shot capabilities and energy range on the other.

International audience; The high photon flux and femtosecond pulse duration of hard X-ray free-electron lasers have spurred a large variety of novel and fascinating experiments in physical, chemical and biological sciences. Many of these experiments depend fundamentally on a clean, well-defined wavefront. Here we explore the wavefront properties of hard X-ray free-electron laser radiation by means of a grating interferometer, from which we obtain shot-to-shot wavefront information with an excellent angular sensitivity on the order of ten nanoradian. The wavefront distortions introduced by optical elements are observed in-situ and under operational conditions. The source-point position and fluctuations are measured with unprecedented accuracy in longitudinal and lateral direction, both during nominal operation and as the X-ray free-electron laser is driven into saturation.

This paper presents the outcome of ray tracing simulations for different optical schemes to be setup at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser facility (XFEL.EU), Germany: one- or two- channel (cut) crystal X-ray monochromators (K-Mono; using spontaneous radiation) are planned and designed mainly for photon beam based alignment, which is gap tuning of the undulator segments and phase tuning of the phase shifters during commissioning and maintenance of the undulators. The coherent SASE (Self Amplified Spontaneous Emission) radiation will be monitored pulse-resolved by single-shot spectrometers of which two types are investigated: i) a three element spectrometer, design proposed by Yabashi et al., which consists of a curved focusing mirror, followed by a flat analyzer crystal and a 2D-detector.ii) a two element spectrometer based on a reflection zone plate that reflects and focuses in one step, and a 2D-detector (currently under development).

A growing number of X-ray sources based on the free-electron laser (XFEL) principle are presently under construction or have recently started operation. The intense, ultrashort pulses of these sources will enable new insights in many different fields of science. A key problem is to provide x-ray optical elements capable of collecting the largest possible fraction of the radiation and to focus into the smallest possible focus. As a key step towards this goal, we demonstrate here the first nanofocusing of hard XFEL pulses. We developed diamond based Fresnel zone plates capable of withstanding the full beam of the world's most powerful x-ray laser. Using an imprint technique, we measured the focal spot size, which was limited to 320 nm FWHM by the spectral band width of the source. A peak power density in the focal spot of 4×10(17)W/cm(2) was obtained at 70 fs pulse length.

We have developed an on-line spectrometer for hard x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) radiation based on a nanostructured diamond diffraction grating and a bent crystal analyzer. Our method provides high spectral resolution, interferes negligibly with the XFEL beam, and can withstand the intense hard x-ray pulses at high repetition rates of >100 Hz. The spectrometer is capable of providing shot-to-shot spectral information for the normalization of data obtained in scientific experiments and optimization of the accelerator operation parameters. We have demonstrated these capabilities of the setup at the Linac Coherent Light Source, in self-amplified spontaneous emission mode at full energy of >1 mJ with a 120 Hz repetition rate, obtaining a resolving power of E/δE>3×104. The device was also used to monitor the effects of pulse duration down to 8 fs by analysis of the spectral spike width.

X-ray Free-Electron-Lasers (XFEL) as the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) in the USA, SACLA in Japan, and the European XFEL under construction in Germany are 4th generation light sources which allow research of at the same time extremely small structures (Ångström resolution) and extremely fast phenomena (femtosecond resolution). Unlike the pulses from a conventional optical laser, the radiation in these sources is created by the Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) process when electron bunches pass through very long segmented undulators. The shot noise at the origin of this process leads to significant pulse-to-pulse variations of pulse intensity, spectrum, wavefront, temporal properties etc. so that for user experiments an online monitoring of these properties is mandatory. Also, the adjustment of the long segmented undulators requires dedicated diagnostics such as an undulator commissioning spectrometer and spontaneous radiation analysis. The extremely high brilliance and resulting single-shot damage issue are difficult to handle for any XFEL diagnostics. Apart from the large energy range of operation of the facility from 280 eV to 25 keV in FEL fundamental, the particular challenge for the European XFEL diagnostics is the high intra bunch train photon pulse repetition rate of 4.5 MHz, potentially causing additional damage by high heat loads and making shot-to-shot diagnostics very demanding. This contribution reports on the facility concepts, recent progress in instrumentation development, and the optimization of diagnostics performance with respect to resolution/accuracy, shot-to-shot capabilities and energy range.

We suggest optical schemes for the European X-ray Free Electron Laser facility (XFEL.EU) in Hamburg: a single element X-ray spectrometer on the basis of a reflection zone plate (RZP) for single-shot diagnostics; and a two-element soft X-ray spectrometer on the basis of two RZPs to carry out Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) experiments. With this setup, a full map of the sample spectrum is obtainable in a single measurement. The main advantage of using zone plates is the possibility to enable dispersion and focusing in one step. Moreover, highest possible X-ray transmission is achieved by using the minimum number of optical elements. Taking into account the European XFEL beam parameters, our simulations, concerning the RIXS experiment, produced very promising results, reaching an energy resolution (E/ΔE) of up to 30,000 at photon energy of 1 keV. When applied as a single shot spectrometer the energy resolution for RZP is of the same order of magnitude.

The time–energy information of ultrashort X-ray free-electron laser pulses generated by the Linac Coherent Light Source is measured with attosecond resolution via angular streaking of neon 1s photoelectrons. The X-ray pulses promote electrons from the neon core level into an ionization continuum, where they are dressed with the electric field of a circularly polarized infrared laser. This induces characteristic modulations of the resulting photoelectron energy and angular distribution. From these modulations we recover the single-shot attosecond intensity structure and chirp of arbitrary X-ray pulses based on self-amplified spontaneous emission, which have eluded direct measurement so far. We characterize individual attosecond pulses, including their instantaneous frequency, and identify double pulses with well-defined delays and spectral properties, thus paving the way for X-ray pump/X-ray probe attosecond free-electron laser science.

We present a spectrogram-based timing technique for x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) that reports x-ray/optical delay below 1 fs RMS error to correct for timing jitter.