Using irregularly spaced current peaks to generate an isolated attosecond X-ray pulse in free-electron lasers.

A method is proposed to generate an isolated attosecond X-ray pulse in free-electron lasers, using irregularly spaced current peaks induced in an electron beam through interaction with an intense short-pulse optical laser. In comparison with a similar scheme proposed in a previous paper, the irregular arrangement of current peaks significantly improves the contrast between the main and satellite pulses, enhances the attainable peak power and simplifies the accelerator layout. Three different methods are proposed for this purpose and achievable performances are computed under realistic conditions. Numerical simulations carried out with the best configuration show that an isolated 7.7 keV X-ray pulse with a peak power of 1.7 TW and pulse length of 70 as can be generated. In this particular example, the contrast is improved by two orders of magnitude and the peak power is enhanced by a factor of three, when compared with the previous scheme.

Reconstruction of electron beam distribution using phase-retrieval algorithm.

The shapes of light sources such as electron beams can be reconstructed by inverse Fourier transformation of the complex degree of spatial coherency, which can be measured using Young's interferometer. The application of the phase-retrieval algorithm to reduce phase measurement errors in the complex degree of spatial coherency is numerically studied using an electron beam with an asymmetric distribution. This application is demonstrated with experimental data measured at the diagnostic beamline at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory.

The coherency of synchrotron radiation at Pohang Accelerator Laboratory.

The coherency of the synchrotron radiation at Pohang Accelerator Laboratory has been investigated using Young's interferometer. The electron beam size can be measured precisely using the interferometer. An interferogram using 650 nm light at the diagnostics beamline at Pohang Light Source (PLS) has been measured to determine the electron beam distribution and the spatial coherence length. Interferograms obtained by numerical study are compared with experimental results in order to understand the measured data. From this comparison, the electron beam at PLS is revealed to be a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation of 210 microm. The spatial coherency length of 650 nm light at PLS is measured to be 0.57 cm, and that of 0.1 nm light at PLS is predicted to be 0.88 microm by the same numerical study.

Author Correction: Isolated terawatt attosecond hard X-ray pulse generated from single current spike.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions of this paper. The error has not been fixed in the paper.

Stripline beam position monitor for X-ray free electron laser of Pohang Accelerator Laboratory.

Beam position monitors (BPMs) are important instruments even in the case of an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL). Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) finished the construction of an XFEL (PAL-XFEL) in 2015, and new stripline BPMs were installed in PAL-XFEL. New BPMs were designed to have a strong signal and a high resolution. In addition, the impedance matching was considered to reduce a signal reflection. These features of the BPM design were confirmed with a simulation study as well. Fabricated BPMs were tested by using a wire test stand. Two-dimensional position errors and offsets were measured to select best BPMs for PAL-XFEL. Finally, a real beam test was tried to check the BPM performance and a better resolution than the requirement was obtained.

Coherent synchrotron radiation monitor for microbunching instability in XFEL.

The microbunching instability is an important issue in an X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL). The intensity of the Free Electron Laser (FEL) can be reduced significantly by the microbunching instability so that the laser heater is widely used to reduce it. In the X-ray Free Electron Laser of the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL-XFEL), to directly monitor the microbunching instability, a visible charge coupled device camera was included into the coherent radiation monitor which uses a pyroelectric detector. It enabled us to measure the microbunching instability more clearly and optimize the FEL lasing in the PAL-XFEL.

Isolated terawatt attosecond hard X-ray pulse generated from single current spike.

Isolated terawatt (TW) attosecond (as) hard X-ray pulse is greatly desired for four-dimensional investigations of natural phenomena with picometer spatial and attosecond temporal resolutions. Since the demand for such sources is continuously increasing, the possibility of generating such pulse by a single current spike without the use of optical or electron delay units in an undulator line is addressed. The conditions of a current spike (width and height) and a modulation laser pulse (wavelength and power) is also discussed. We demonstrate that an isolated TW-level as a hard X-ray can be produced by a properly chosen single current spike in an electron bunch with simulation results. By using realistic specifications of an electron bunch of the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory X-ray Free-Electron Laser (PAL-XFEL), we show that an isolated, >1.0 TW and ~36 as X-ray pulse at 12.4 keV can be generated in an optimized-tapered undulator line. This result opens a new vista for current XFEL operation: the attosecond XFEL.

Note: Recent achievements at the 60-MeV linac for sub-picosecond terahertz radiation at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory.

A femtosecond (fs) terahertz (THz) linac has been constructed to generate fs-THz radiation by using ultrashort electron beam at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory. To generate an ultrashort electron beam with 60-MeV energy, a chicane bunch compressor has been adopted. Simulation studies have been conducted to design the linac. In this note, recent achievements at 60-MeV linac are presented.