Photonics (Feb 2022)

Design of a Hybrid Split-Delay Line for Hard X-ray Free-Electron Lasers

  • Yihui Xu,
  • Chen Wu,
  • Jiadong Fan,
  • Zhen Wang,
  • Yajun Tong,
  • Qiushi Huang,
  • Chuan Yang,
  • Xiaohao Dong,
  • Huaidong Jiang,
  • Zhi Liu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics9030136
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 3
p. 136

Abstract

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High repetition-rate X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) enable the study of fast dynamics on microsecond time scales. Split-delay lines (SDLs) further bring the time scale down to femtoseconds by splitting and delaying the XFEL pulses. Crystals and multilayers are two common types of optical elements in SDLs, offering either long delay ranges or high temporal accuracy. In this work, we introduce the design of a hybrid SDL for the coherent diffraction endstation of Shanghai High Repetition Rate XFEL and Extreme Light Facility (SHINE). It uses crystals for the first branch and multilayers for the second one, thus simultaneously offering a relatively long delay range and high temporal accuracy. Moreover, a third branch can be installed to switch the SDL to the all-crystal configuration for longer delay ranges.

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