Extreme-ultraviolet to x-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) in operation for scientific applications are up to now single-user facilities. While most FELs generate around 100 photon pulses per second, FLASH at DESY can deliver almost two orders of magnitude more pulses in this time span due to its superconducting accelerator technology. This makes the facility a prime candidate to realize the next step in FELs-dividing the electron pulse trains into several FEL lines and delivering photon pulses to several users at the same time. Hence, FLASH has been extended with a second undulator line and self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) is demonstrated in both FELs simultaneously. FLASH can now deliver MHz pulse trains to two user experiments in parallel with individually selected photon beam characteristics. First results of the capabilities of this extension are shown with emphasis on independent variation of wavelength, repetition rate, and photon pulse length.
AGIPD -(Adaptive Gain Integrating Pixel Detector) is a hybrid pixel X-ray detector developed by a collaboration between Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Paul-ScherrerInstitut (PSI), University of Hamburg and the University of Bonn. The detector is designed to comply with the requirements of the European XFEL. The radiation tolerant Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is designed with the following highlights: high dynamic range, spanning from single photon sensitivity up to 10 4 12.5keV photons, achieved by the use of the dynamic gain switching technique using 3 possible gains of the charge sensitive preamplifier. In order to store the image data, the ASIC incorporates 352 analog memory cells per pixel, allowing also to store 3 voltage levels corresponding to the selected gain. It is operated in random-access mode at 4.5MHz frame rate. The data acquisition is done during the 99.4ms between the bunch trains. The AGIPD has a pixel area of 200×200 µm 2 and a 500µm thick silicon sensor is used. The architecture 1 Corresponding author. 2015 JINST 10 C01023 principles were proven in different experiments and the ASIC characterization was done with a series of development prototypes. The mechanical concept was developed in the close contact with the XFEL beamline scientists and is now being manufactured. A first single module system was successfully tested at APS.
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