We report recent results on the performance of FLASH (Free Electron Laser in Hamburg) operating at a wavelength of 13.7 nm where unprecedented peak and average powers for a coherent EUV radiation source have been measured. In the saturation regime the peak energy approached 170 µJ for individual pulses while the average energy per pulse reached 70 µJ. The pulse duration was in the region of 10 femtoseconds and peak

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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.

A new version of the SIMCON system is presented in this paper. The SIMCON stands for the microwave, resonant, superconductive accelerator cavity simulator and controller (embracing the hardware and software layers). The current version of the SIMCON is 3.1. which is a considerable step forward from the previous 8-channel version 3.0. which was released at the beginning of 2005 and was made operable in April. Many important upgrades were implemented in SIMCON 3.1. It is a stand-alone VME board (whereas SIMCON 3.0 was modular) based on the Virtex II Pro 30 chip with two embedded Power PCs and DSP blocks. It has Ethernet and multiple gigabit optical I/Os. The Simcon 3.1 board provides 10 ADC channels. The architecture idea and block diagrams of the PCB for SIMCON 3.1. are presented. Some of the applied novel technical solutions, Protel® views and schemes are shown. A number of initial conclusions were drawn from a few month experience with the development of this new board. The tables of predicted system parameters are quoted.