Past, Present and Future Aspects of Laser-Based Synchronization at FLASH

Free-electron lasers, like FLASH and the upcoming European XFEL, are capable of producing XUV and X-ray pulses of a few femtoseconds duration. For time-resolved pump-probe experiments and the externally seeded operation mode it is crucial not only to stabilize the arrival time of the electron bunches, but also to achieve a synchronization accuracy of external lasers on the same timescale. This can only be realized with a laser-based synchronization infrastructure. At FLASH, a periodic femtosecond laser pulse train is transmitted over actively stabilized optical fibers to the critical subsystems. In this paper we report on the present status and performance of the system, as well as its imminent upgrades and new installations. These include the connection of FLASH2, electron bunch arrival time monitors for low charges, a new master laser pulse distribution scheme, all-optical synchronization of the pump-probe laser and arrival time measurements of the UV pulses on the e-gun photocathode. Along with the coming connection of the acceleration modules to the master laser and the switch of the low-level hardware to the uTCA platform, an outlook to improved feedback strategies is given.