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    Real-time spatial characterization of micrometer-sized X-ray free-electron laser beams focused by bendable mirrors
    (Washington, DC : Soc., 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.
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    Transient magnetic gratings on the nanometer scale
    (Melville, NY : AIP Publishing LLC, 2020) Weder, D.; von Korff Schmising, C.; Günther, C.M.; Schneider, M.; Engel, D.; Hessing, P.; Strüber, C.; Weigand, M.; Vodungbo, B.; Jal, E.; Liu, X.; Merhe, A.; Pedersoli, E.; Capotondi, F.; Lüning, J.; Pfau, B.; Eisebitt, S.
    Laser-driven non-local electron dynamics in ultrathin magnetic samples on a sub-10 nm length scale is a key process in ultrafast magnetism. However, the experimental access has been challenging due to the nanoscopic and femtosecond nature of such transport processes. Here, we present a scattering-based experiment relying on a laser-induced electro- and magneto-optical grating in a Co/Pd ferromagnetic multilayer as a new technique to investigate non-local magnetization dynamics on nanometer length and femtosecond timescales. We induce a spatially modulated excitation pattern using tailored Al near-field masks with varying periodicities on a nanometer length scale and measure the first four diffraction orders in an x-ray scattering experiment with magnetic circular dichroism contrast at the free-electron laser facility FERMI, Trieste. The design of the periodic excitation mask leads to a strongly enhanced and characteristic transient scattering response allowing for sub-wavelength in-plane sensitivity for magnetic structures. In conjunction with scattering simulations, the experiment allows us to infer that a potential ultrafast lateral expansion of the initially excited regions of the magnetic film mediated by hot-electron transport and spin transport remains confined to below three nanometers.