Toward an integrated device for spatiotemporal superposition of free-electron lasers and laser pulses

Mincigrucci, Riccardo; Matruglio, Alessia; Calvi, Andrea; Foglia, Laura; Principi, Emiliano; Simoncig, Alberto; Bencivenga, Filippo; Dallorto, Stefano; Gessini, Alessandro; Kurdi, G.; Olynick, Deirdre L.; Dhuey, Scott; Sergo, R.; Lazzarino, Marco; Masciovecchio, C.; Zilio, Simone Dal

doi:10.1364/ol.41.005090

Cited by 3 publications

References 23 publications

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Time zero determination for FEL pump-probe studies based on ultrafast melting of bismuth

Epp

Hada

Zhong

et al. 2017

Structural Dynamics

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A common challenge for pump-probe studies of structural dynamics at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) is the determination of time zero (T0)—the time an optical pulse (e.g., an optical laser) arrives coincidently with the probe pulse (e.g., a XFEL pulse) at the sample position. In some cases, T0 might be extracted from the structural dynamics of the sample's observed response itself, but generally, an independent robust method is required or would be superior to the inferred determination of T0. In this paper, we present how the structural dynamics in ultrafast melting of bismuth can be exploited for a quickly performed, reliable and accurate determination of T0 with a precision below 20 fs and an overall experimental accuracy of 50 fs to 150 fs (estimated). Our approach is potentially useful and applicable for fixed-target XFEL experiments, such as serial femtosecond crystallography, utilizing an optical pump pulse in the ultraviolet to near infrared spectral range and a pixelated 2D photon detector for recording crystallographic diffraction patterns in transmission geometry. In comparison to many other suitable approaches, our method is fairly independent of the pumping wavelength (UV–IR) as well as of the X-ray energy and offers a favorable signal contrast. The technique is exploitable not only for the determination of temporal characteristics of the experiment at the interaction point but also for investigating important conditions affecting experimental control such as spatial overlap and beam spot sizes.

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Time zero determination for FEL pump-probe studies based on ultrafast melting of bismuth

Epp

Hada

Zhong

et al. 2017

Structural Dynamics

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Timing methodologies and studies at the FERMI free-electron laser

Mincigrucci

Bencivenga

Principi

et al. 2018

J Synchrotron Radiat

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Time-resolved investigations have begun a new era of chemistry and physics, enabling the monitoring in real time of the dynamics of chemical reactions and matter. Induced transient optical absorption is a basic ultrafast electronic effect, originated by a partial depletion of the valence band, that can be triggered by exposing insulators and semiconductors to sub-picosecond extreme-ultraviolet pulses. Besides its scientific and fundamental implications, this process is very important as it is routinely applied in free-electron laser (FEL) facilities to achieve the temporal superposition between FEL and optical laser pulses with tens of femtoseconds accuracy. Here, a set of methodologies developed at the FERMI facility based on ultrafast effects in condensed materials and employed to effectively determine the FEL/laser cross correlation are presented.

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