Mario Ferianis

Highly coherent and stable pulses from the FERMI seeded free-electron laser in the extreme ultraviolet

Researchers demonstrate the FERMI free-electron laser operating in the high-gain harmonic generation regime, allowing high stability, transverse and longitudinal coherence and polarization control.

The FERMI free-electron lasers

FERMI is a seeded free-electron laser (FEL) facility located at the Elettra laboratory in Trieste, Italy, and is now in user operation with its first FEL line, FEL-1, covering the wavelength range between 100 and 20 nm. The second FEL line, FEL-2, a high-gain harmonic generation double-stage cascade covering the wavelength range 20-4 nm, has also completed commissioning and the first user call has been recently opened. An overview of the typical operating modes of the facility is presented.

Status and achievements at FERMI@Elettra: the first double cascade seeded EUV-SXR FEL facility open to users

FERMI@Elettra is the first seeded VUV/soft X-ray FEL source. It is composed of two undulatory chains: the low energy branch (FELl) covering the wavelength range from 20 nm up to 100 nm, and the high energy branch (FEL2, employing a double stage cascade), covering the wavelength range from 4 nm up to 20 nm. At the end of 2012 FELl has been opened to external users while FEL2 has been turned on for the first time having demonstrated that a double cascade scheme is suitable for generating high intensity coherent FEL radiation. In this paper we will share our experience and will show our most recent results for both FERMI FELl and FEL2 sources. We will also present a brand new machine scheme that allows to perform two-colour pump and probe experiments as well as the first experimental results.

The FERMI seeded-FEL facility: Status and perspectives

The FERMI Free Electron Laser (FEL) in Trieste, Italy operates in the extreme ultraviolet and soft x rays (EUV-SXR) wavelength range delivering high-fluence, stable, ultra-short pulses. Its unique design based on a seeded scheme and on tunable undulators allows unprecedented control of pulse parameters such as wavelength, phase, polarization, synchronization, pulse duration and implementation of multi-color FEL schemes. Both FEL-1 and FEL-2 lines with nominal wavelength range 100–20 nm and 20–4 nm, respectively, are open to users. We report on the unique features of FERMI, in particular those that have evolved beyond the original design, and on their application to pioneering experiments. We also present the upgrades that are planned to further expand the capabilities of this unique light source.

Two-Bunch Operation at the FERMI FEL Facility

FERMI is a linac-driven free electron laser (FEL) based upon the High Gain Harmonic Generation (HGHG) scheme. In standard conditions a bunch of 700 pC of charge with sub mm-mrad emittances is accelerated to 1.2-1.5GeV in a normal conducting S-band linac and drives FEL-1 or FEL-2 undula-tor line, which lase respectively in the range 100-20nm or 20-4nm. A number of two-color schemes have been implemented at FERMI for pump/probe experiments, all consisting in making two portions of the same electron bunch lase at two different wavelengths, with a time-separation from 0 to few hundreds of fs. In order to increase the time separation to ns and tens of ns we have explored the acceleration of two inde-pendent electron bunches separated by multiple of the linac main radio-frequency period, i.e. 333ps. Measure-ments and characterization of this two-bunch mode oper-ation are presented, including trajectory control, impact of longitudinal and transverse wakefields on the trailing bunch and manipulation of the longitudinal phase space.

FERMI longitudinal diagnostics: results and future challenges

The seeded FEL FERMI has completed the commissioning of both the FEL lines, and it is now providing the user community with a coherent and tunable UV radiation (from 100 nm to 4 nm) in a number of different configurations. These also include original FEL-pump - FEL-probe schemes with twin-seeded FEL pulses. Among the key systems for the operation of FERMI, there is the femtosecond optical timing system and dedicated longitudinal diagnostics, specifically developed for FERMI. In this paper, after a short review of the FERMI optical timing system and of its routinely achieved performances, we focus on the results obtained from the suite of longitudinal diagnostics (Bunch Arrival Monitor, Electro Optical sampling station and RF deflectors) all operating in single shot and with 10s fs resolution which demonstrate the FERMI achieved performances. The longitudinal diagnostics measurements are compared between these device and other device on shot-to-shot basis, looking for correlations between machine parameters. Finally future challenges in terms of improvement of existing diagnostics, planned installations and possible upgrades are discussed.

Large Scale, Femtosecond Timing Distribution

Advances in low noise femtosecond laser technology as well as in optical and RF- signal stabilization and extraction techniques are described that enable the first long term stable implementation of a femtosecond optical and RF timing distribution system for next generation accelerators and X-ray free electron lasers.

Streak Camera Characterization Using a Femtosecond Ti:Sapphire Laser

At ELETTRA a Streak Camera system is in operation since 1999. Several measurements have been performed so far on the diagnostic bending magnet beam line of the Storage Ring. This instrument has been also widely used during the Storage Ring FEL commissioning to fully characterize both the electron beam and the FEL radiation down to 190nm and pulse length of 7.7psfwhm. As the FEL pulse duration is approaching few picoseconds, it becomes important to study the performance of the streak camera in this regime which is very close to its temporal resolution limits. We therefore use the newly available femtosecond Ti:Sapphire laser delivering sub‐50fs pulses to fully characterize the Streak Camera in short pulse operation. Using both infrared laser light and its second harmonic in the blue we study the effects of incident light wavelength and bandwidth on the resolution, as well as the linearity of the sweeps (linear single sweep and double sweep with synchroscan) on full‐scale extension. The results are presente...