Effect of high slice energy spread of an electron beam on the generation of isolated, terawatt, attosecond X-ray free-electron laser pulse.

Attosecond (asec) X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) has attracted considerable interest over the past years. Nowadays typical XFEL application experiments demand 1010-1011 photons per pulse, which corresponds to a peak power of terawatts (TW) in case of asec hard X-ray pulse. To the realization of such TW asec-XFEL pulse, however, the unavoidable increase of slice energy spread (SES) due to laser heater, which is commonly used to mitigate the micro-bunching instability (MBI), would be a major obstacle. To deal with this problem, the effect of such a SES is investigated in this work. The results reveal that (1) SES of a current spike is linearly proportional to the peak current of a current spike in an electron beam, (2) surprisingly, this linearity is independent of the wavelength of an energy modulation driving laser which is used to make a current spike and (3) the gain length of current spike in the undulator is sensitive to the initial SES, so there is an optimal peak current of the current spike for successful FEL lasing process. Utilizing these characteristics, a series of simulations with parameters for Pohang Accelerator Laboratory X-ray Free Electron Laser was carried out to demonstrate that an isolated, TW asec-XFEL pulse can be generated even when the SES is increased due to the usage of laser heater to prevent the MBI in the XFEL. We show that an isolated X-ray pulse with >1 TW and a pulse duration of 73 as (~3 × 1010 photons/pulse at 12.4 keV or 0.1 nm) can be generated by using ten current spikes with optimal peak current. It becomes clear for the first time that the disadvantage from the increased SES can be indeed overcome.

Author Correction: Isolated terawatt attosecond hard X-ray pulse generated from single current spike.

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Isolated terawatt attosecond hard X-ray pulse generated from single current spike.

Isolated terawatt (TW) attosecond (as) hard X-ray pulse is greatly desired for four-dimensional investigations of natural phenomena with picometer spatial and attosecond temporal resolutions. Since the demand for such sources is continuously increasing, the possibility of generating such pulse by a single current spike without the use of optical or electron delay units in an undulator line is addressed. The conditions of a current spike (width and height) and a modulation laser pulse (wavelength and power) is also discussed. We demonstrate that an isolated TW-level as a hard X-ray can be produced by a properly chosen single current spike in an electron bunch with simulation results. By using realistic specifications of an electron bunch of the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory X-ray Free-Electron Laser (PAL-XFEL), we show that an isolated, >1.0 TW and ~36 as X-ray pulse at 12.4 keV can be generated in an optimized-tapered undulator line. This result opens a new vista for current XFEL operation: the attosecond XFEL.

Temporally-coherent terawatt attosecond XFEL synchronized with a few cycle laser.

Attosecond metrology using laser-based high-order harmonics has been significantly advanced and applied to various studies of electron dynamics in atoms, molecules and solids. Laser-based high-order harmonics have a limitation of low power and photon energies. There is, however, a great demand for even higher power and photon energy. Here, we propose a scheme for a terawatt attosecond (TW-as) X-ray pulse in X-ray free-electron laser controlled by a few cycle IR pulse, where one dominant current spike in an electron bunch is used repeatedly to amplify a seeded radiation to a terawatt level. This scheme is relatively simple, compact, straightforward, and also produces a temporally and spectrally clean pulse. The viability of this scheme is demonstrated in simulations using Pohang accelerator laboratory (PAL)-XFEL beam parameters.

Using irregularly spaced current peaks to generate an isolated attosecond X-ray pulse in free-electron lasers.

A method is proposed to generate an isolated attosecond X-ray pulse in free-electron lasers, using irregularly spaced current peaks induced in an electron beam through interaction with an intense short-pulse optical laser. In comparison with a similar scheme proposed in a previous paper, the irregular arrangement of current peaks significantly improves the contrast between the main and satellite pulses, enhances the attainable peak power and simplifies the accelerator layout. Three different methods are proposed for this purpose and achievable performances are computed under realistic conditions. Numerical simulations carried out with the best configuration show that an isolated 7.7 keV X-ray pulse with a peak power of 1.7 TW and pulse length of 70 as can be generated. In this particular example, the contrast is improved by two orders of magnitude and the peak power is enhanced by a factor of three, when compared with the previous scheme.

Reconstruction of electron beam distribution using phase-retrieval algorithm.

The shapes of light sources such as electron beams can be reconstructed by inverse Fourier transformation of the complex degree of spatial coherency, which can be measured using Young's interferometer. The application of the phase-retrieval algorithm to reduce phase measurement errors in the complex degree of spatial coherency is numerically studied using an electron beam with an asymmetric distribution. This application is demonstrated with experimental data measured at the diagnostic beamline at the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory.

The coherency of synchrotron radiation at Pohang Accelerator Laboratory.

The coherency of the synchrotron radiation at Pohang Accelerator Laboratory has been investigated using Young's interferometer. The electron beam size can be measured precisely using the interferometer. An interferogram using 650 nm light at the diagnostics beamline at Pohang Light Source (PLS) has been measured to determine the electron beam distribution and the spatial coherence length. Interferograms obtained by numerical study are compared with experimental results in order to understand the measured data. From this comparison, the electron beam at PLS is revealed to be a Gaussian distribution with a standard deviation of 210 microm. The spatial coherency length of 650 nm light at PLS is measured to be 0.57 cm, and that of 0.1 nm light at PLS is predicted to be 0.88 microm by the same numerical study.