Search Results
Sub-15-fs X-ray pump and X-ray probe experiment for the study of ultrafast magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic alloys
2021, Liu, Xuan, Merhe, Alaaeldine, Jal, Emmanuelle, Delaunay, Renaud, Jarrier, Romain, Chardonnet, Valentin, Hennes, Marcel, Chiuzbaian, Sorin G., Légaré, Katherine, Hennecke, Martin, Radu, Ilie, Von Korff Schmising, Clemens, Grunewald, Særen, Kuhlmann, Marion, Lüning, Jan, Vodungbo, Boris
In this paper, we present a new setup for the measurement of element-specific ultrafast magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic thin films with a sub-15-fs time resolution. Our experiment relies on a split and delay approach which allows us to fully exploit the shortest X-rays pulses delivered by X-ray Free Electrons Lasers (close to the attosecond range), in an X-ray pump – X-ray probe geometry. The setup performance is demonstrated by measuring the ultrafast elemental response of Ni and Fe during demagnetization of ferromagnetic Ni and Ni80Fe20 (Permalloy) samples upon resonant excitation at the corresponding absorption edges. The transient demagnetization process is measured in both reflection and transmission geometry using, respectively, the transverse magneto-optical Kerr effect (T-MOKE) and the Faraday effect as probing mechanisms.
Real-time spatial characterization of micrometer-sized X-ray free-electron laser beams focused by bendable mirrors
2022, Mercurio, Giuseppe, Chalupský, Jaromír, Nistea, Ioana-Theodora, Schneider, Michael, Hájková, Věra, Gerasimova, Natalia, Carley, Robert, Cascella, Michele, Le Guyader, Loïc, Mercadier, Laurent, Schlappa, Justine, Setoodehnia, Kiana, Teichmann, Martin, Yaroslavtsev, Alexander, Burian, Tomáš, Vozda, Vojtĕch, Vyšín, Luděk, Wild, Jan, Hickin, David, Silenzi, Alessandro, Stupar, Marijan, Torben Delitz, Jan, Broers, Carsten, Reich, Alexander, Pfau, Bastian, Eisebitt, Stefan, La Civita, Daniele, Sinn, Harald, Vannoni, Maurizio, Alcock, Simon G., Juha, Libor, Scherz, Andreas
A real-time and accurate characterization of the X-ray beam size is essential to enable a large variety of different experiments at free-electron laser facilities. Typically, ablative imprints are employed to determine shape and size of μm-focused X-ray beams. The high accuracy of this state-of-the-art method comes at the expense of the time required to perform an ex-situ image analysis. In contrast, diffraction at a curved grating with suitably varying period and orientation forms a magnified image of the X-ray beam, which can be recorded by a 2D pixelated detector providing beam size and pointing jitter in real time. In this manuscript, we compare results obtained with both techniques, address their advantages and limitations, and demonstrate their excellent agreement. We present an extensive characterization of the FEL beam focused to ≈1 μm by two Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) mirrors, along with optical metrology slope profiles demonstrating their exceptionally high quality. This work provides a systematic and comprehensive study of the accuracy provided by curved gratings in real-time imaging of X-ray beams at a free-electron laser facility. It is applied here to soft X-rays and can be extended to the hard X-ray range. Furthermore, curved gratings, in combination with a suitable detector, can provide spatial properties of μm-focused X-ray beams at MHz repetition rate.
THz streak camera performance for single-shot characterization of XUV pulses with complex temporal structures
2020, Oelze, Tim, Kulyk, Olena, Schütte, Bernd, Frühling, Ulrike, Klimešová, Eva, Jagielski, Bartholomäus, Dittrich, Laura, Drescher, Markus, Pan, Rui, Stojanovic, Nikola, Polovinkin, Vitaly, Khakurel, Krishna P., Muehlig, Kerstin, Bermudez Macias, Ivette J., Düsterer, Stefan, Faatz, Bart, Andreasson, Jakob, Wieland, Marek, Krikunova, Maria
The THz-field-driven streak camera has proven to be a powerful diagnostic-technique that enables the shot-to-shot characterization of the duration and the arrival time jitter of free electron laser (FEL) pulses. Here we investigate the performance of three computational approaches capable to determine the duration of FEL pulses with complex temporal structures from single-shot measurements of up to three simultaneously recorded spectra. We use numerically simulated FEL pulses in order to validate the accuracy of the pulse length retrieval in average as well as in a single-shot mode. We discuss requirements for the THz field strength in order to achieve reliable results and compare our numerical study with the analysis of experimental data that were obtained at the FEL in Hamburg - FLASH. © 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement