N. Hiller

Real-time measurement of picosecond THz pulses by an ultra-fast YBa2Cu3O7−d detection system

The temporal evolution of picosecond THz pulses generated at ANKA, the electron storage ring of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, has been measured in real-time using an ultra-fast YBa2Cu3O7−δ detection system. YBa2Cu3O7−δ thin-film detectors with 30 nm thickness were patterned to microbridges (2 μm long, 4.5 μm wide) and embedded into a planar log-spiral THz antenna. The detectors were glued on a silicon lens and installed in an ultra-fast readout system with a temporal resolution of 15 ps (full width at half maximum). Detector responses as short as 17 ps were recorded showing very good agreement with the expected storage ring bunch lengths.

Fast Mapping of Terahertz Bursting Thresholds and Characteristics at Synchrotron Light Sources

Dedicated optics with extremely short electron bunches enable synchrotron light sources to generate intense coherent THz radiation. The high degree of spatial compression in this so-called low-αc optics entails a complex longitudinal dynamics of the electron bunches, which can be probed studying the fluctuations in the emitted terahertz radiation caused by the micro-bunching instability (“bursting”). This article presents a “quasi-instantaneous” method for measuring the bursting characteristics by simultaneously collecting and evaluating the information from all bunches in a multi-bunch fill, reducing the measurement time from hours to seconds. This speed-up allows systematic studies of the bursting characteristics for various accelerator settings within a single fill of the machine, enabling a comprehensive comparison of the measured bursting thresholds with theoretical predictions by the bunched-beam theory. This paper introduces the method and presents first results obtained at the ANKA synchrotron radiation facility.

Ultrafast laser pump X-ray probe experiments by means of asynchronous sampling

A high time resolution in the picosecond range is required for the time-domain investigation of phonon dynamics in crystalline systems. Following a recently developed scheme in the visible spectrum, this resolution can be achieved by a method called asynchronous optical x-ray sampling (ASOXS). A pulsed femtosecond laser with high repetition rate is synchronized to the electron bunches in a storage ring. A slight frequency detuning changes the mutual delay continuously, resulting in a time-domain x-ray sampling of the laser-excited system. At the synchrotron radiation source ANKA a machine mode with low momentum compaction factor αc is available, which delivers ultra-short x-ray pulses in the picosecond range.

Unveiling relativistic electron bunch microstructures and their dynamical evolutions, using photonic time-stretch

The photonic time-stretch technique allows electric field pulse shapes to be recorded with picosecond resolution, at megahertz acquisition rates. Using this strategy, we could directly record spatial patterns that spontaneously appear in relativistic electron bunches, and follow their dynamical evolution over time. We present recent results obtained using two strategies. At SOLEIL, we present the shapes of the THz pulses which are emitted by the structures, and detected far from the emission point, at the end of a beamline. At ANKA, we present how it has been possible to monitor directly the electron bunch near-field. These new types of single-shot recordings allow direct and stringent tests to be performed on electron bunch dynamical models in synchrotron radiation facilities.

Unveiling the complex shapes of relativistic electrons bunches, using photonic time-stretch electro-optic sampling

Photonic time-stretch enables to record electric field pulse shapes with picosecond resolution, at megahertz acquisition rates. Using this strategy, we could record the complex spatiotemporal evolution of relativistic electron bunches circulating in storage ring accelerators. We tested two complementary approaches. At SOLEIL, we monitored the THz pulses of coherent synchrotron that are emitted by the electrons. At ANKA, we monitored directly the electron bunch near-field.

Influence of Filling Pattern Structure on Synchrotron Radiation Spectrum at ANKA

We present the effects of the filling pattern structure in multi-bunch mode on the beam spectrum. This effects can be seen by all detectors whose resolution is better than the RF frequency, ranging from stripline and Schottky measurements to high resolution synchrotron radiation measurements. Our heterodyne measurements of the emitted coherent synchrotron radiation at 270 GHz reveal discrete frequency harmonics around the 100 000th revolution harmonic of ANKA, the synchrotron radiation facility in Karlsruhe, Germany. Significant effects of bunch spacing, gaps between bunch trains and variations in individual bunch currents on the emitted CSR spectrum are described by theory and supported by observations. INTRODUCTION With the approximation that the signal of every revolution in a storage ring is the same, the beam spectrum can be written as the convolution of an infinite pulse train, separated by the revolution time T0, the filling pattern signal sF (t) and the single pulse signal sp(t) [1]: s(t) =XT0 (t) ∗ sF (t) ∗ sp(t), (1) where XT0 (t) denotes the Shah distribution [2]: XT0 (t) = ∞ ∑ n=−∞ δ(t − nT0) . (2) The filling pattern signal consists of dirac delta peaks at the position kTRF of the k-th bunch and height Vk corresponding to the bunch charge