A. Streun

Technical Report: FEMTO: A Sub-ps Tunable Hard X-ray Undulator Source for Laser/X-ray Pump-Probe Experiments at the SLS

FEMTO, a femtosecond (fs) X-ray source based on laser interaction with a relativistic electron beam, began operation in the fall of 2006. It is installed at the μXAS beamline of the Swiss Light Source (SLS) at the Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen. “Laser slicing” of an electron beam has first been proposed and demonstrated at the ALS [1] and has recently been implemented at BESSY [2] to generate fs soft X-rays (1–2 keV) with variable polarization. FEMTO is the first undulator source providing tunable, fs hard X-rays in the range 4.5–12 keV for laser/X-ray pump-probe absorption and diffraction experiments.

SLS: Pushing the Envelope Based on Stability

The Swiss Light Source (SLS) is a synchrotron radiation user facility (2000 users/year, 18 beamlines, 5000 hrs/year) in operation at Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) since 2001. Figure 1 presents a schematic view.