Takashi Kameshima

Development of an X-ray pixel detector with multi-port charge-coupled device for X-ray free-electron laser experiments

This paper presents development of an X-ray pixel detector with a multi-port charge-coupled device (MPCCD) for X-ray Free-Electron laser experiments. The fabrication process of the CCD was selected based on the X-ray radiation hardness against the estimated annual dose of 1.6 × 10(14) photon/mm(2). The sensor device was optimized by maximizing the full well capacity as high as 5 Me- within 50 μm square pixels while keeping the single photon detection capability for X-ray photons higher than 6 keV and a readout speed of 60 frames/s. The system development also included a detector system for the MPCCD sensor. This paper summarizes the performance, calibration methods, and operation status.

Extreme ultraviolet free electron laser seeded with high-order harmonic of Ti:sapphire laser

The 13th harmonic of a Ti:sapphire (Ti:S) laser in the plateau region was injected as a seeding source to a 250-MeV free-electron-laser (FEL) amplifier. When the amplification conditions were fulfilled, strong enhancement of the radiation intensity by a factor of 650 was observed. The random and uncontrollable spikes, which appeared in the spectra of the Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) based FEL radiation without the seeding source, were found to be suppressed drastically to form to a narrow-band, single peak profile at 61.2 nm. The properties of the seeded FEL radiation were well reproduced by numerical simulations. We discuss the future precept of the seeded FEL scheme to the shorter wavelength region.

Observation of femtosecond X-ray interactions with matter using an X-ray–X-ray pump–probe scheme

Significance Understanding ultraintense light–matter interactions is an intriguing subject from viewpoints of basic science and practical applications. For the X-ray region, such research fields have opened up with the emergence of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). By using an X-ray–X-ray pump–probe scheme, we firstly measured atomic response to XFEL light with femtosecond–ångstrom time–space resolutions. It was found that the atomic position is freezing until 20 fs after the XFEL irradiation, which supports the feasibility of damageless structural determinations with ultraintense XFEL pulses. The pump–probe scheme demonstrated here is an effective way to capture X-ray–matter interactions, and would contribute to verify and improve theory of X-ray interactions with matter, and stimulate advanced XFEL applications. Resolution in the X-ray structure determination of noncrystalline samples has been limited to several tens of nanometers, because deep X-ray irradiation required for enhanced resolution causes radiation damage to samples. However, theoretical studies predict that the femtosecond (fs) durations of X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pulses make it possible to record scattering signals before the initiation of X-ray damage processes; thus, an ultraintense X-ray beam can be used beyond the conventional limit of radiation dose. Here, we verify this scenario by directly observing femtosecond X-ray damage processes in diamond irradiated with extraordinarily intense (∼1019 W/cm2) XFEL pulses. An X-ray pump–probe diffraction scheme was developed in this study; tightly focused double–5-fs XFEL pulses with time separations ranging from sub-fs to 80 fs were used to excite (i.e., pump) the diamond and characterize (i.e., probe) the temporal changes of the crystalline structures through Bragg reflection. It was found that the pump and probe diffraction intensities remain almost constant for shorter time separations of the double pulse, whereas the probe diffraction intensities decreased after 20 fs following pump pulse irradiation due to the X-ray–induced atomic displacement. This result indicates that sub-10-fs XFEL pulses enable conductions of damageless structural determinations and supports the validity of the theoretical predictions of ultraintense X-ray–matter interactions. The X-ray pump–probe scheme demonstrated here would be effective for understanding ultraintense X-ray–matter interactions, which will greatly stimulate advanced XFEL applications, such as atomic structure determination of a single molecule and generation of exotic matters with high energy densities.

Wavefront metrology measurements at SACLA by means of X-ray grating interferometry

The knowledge of the X-ray wavefront is of importance for many experiments at synchrotron sources and hard X-ray free-electron lasers. We will report on metrology measurements performed at the SACLA X-ray Free Electron Laser by means of grating interferometry which allows for an at-wavelength, in-situ, and single-shot characterization of the X-ray wavefront. At SACLA the grating interferometry technique was used for the study of the X-ray optics installed upstream of the end station, two off-set mirror systems and a double crystal monochromator. The excellent quality of the optical components was confirmed by the experimental results. Consequently grating interferometry presents the ability to support further technical progresses in X-ray mirror manufacturing and mounting.

Characterizing transverse coherence of an ultra-intense focused X-ray free-electron laser by an extended Young's experiment

A new interference technique to measure the transverse coherence of X-ray free-electron lasers is proposed and applied to the characterization of the coherence properties of ultra-intense focused X-ray pulses from the SPring-8 Ångstrom Compact free-electron LAser (SACLA).

Shot-to-shot diagnostic of the longitudinal photon source position at the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free Electron Laser by means of x-ray grating interferometry.

We present single-shot measurements of the longitudinal photon source position of the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free Electron Laser x-ray free electron laser by means of x-ray grating interferometry. The measurements were performed in order to study the behavior of the source under normal operation conditions and as a dependence on the active undulator length. The retrieved experimental results show that x-ray grating interferometry is a powerful in situ monitoring tool for investigating and tuning an x-ray free electron laser.

Control and data acquisition system for X-ray Free-Electron Laser experiments at SACLA

We have developed a data acquisition, control, and storage system for user experiments at the X-ray Free Electron Laser facility, SACLA, at the SPring-S site. The system is designed to handle up to 5 Gbps data rate of shot-by-shot data in synchronization with the 60-Hz of beam repetition cycle. The system has been stably operating for the public users experiments since March 2012.

Data Analysis Environment for X-ray Free-Electron Laser Experiments at SACLA

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) with full spatial coherence, extreme brilliance, and ultra-fast pulse duration [1, 2] allow the investigation of complex phenomena in physics, chemistry, and biology with angstrom and femtosecond resolutions. In particular, a concept of “diffraction before destruction” [3] has been demonstrated for serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) [4, 5] and coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) [6]. Using femto-second XFEL pulses, diffraction data are collected before radiation damage to samples has time to occur. Since samples are exchanged for each XFEL pulse, shot-to-shot data acquisition (DAQ) is mandatory to correlate the recorded data with the sample characteristics. The shot-to-shot DAQ must be synchronized with the repetition rate of the XFEL source, typically several tens to one hundred Hz for the machine based on normal-conducting accelerators. Shot-to-shot recording of XFEL pulse characteristics is also essential because they fluctuate due to the stochastic nature of a self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE). We must carefully analyze a huge data set taking the fluctuation into account.

Protein-ligand complex structure from serial femtosecond crystallography using soaked thermolysin microcrystals and comparison with structures from synchrotron radiation

The applicability of the ligand-soaking method in serial femtosecond crystallography has been examined to examine the feasibility of pharmaceutical applications of X-ray free-electron lasers.

A scintillator fabricated by solid-state diffusion bonding for high spatial resolution x-ray imaging

Lens-coupled two-dimensional indirect X-ray detectors with thin-film scintillators are important for high spatial resolution X-ray imaging. To achieve high quality high-resolution images, we propose a novel fabrication method for thin-film scintillators based on solid-state diffusion bonding. Scintillators were successfully produced with thicknesses of 5, 10, and 20 μm, with a surface flatness better than λ/10. X-ray imaging performance with a point spread function of 8 μm FWHM was demonstrated with a prototype X-ray detector equipped with a 20-μm-thick scintillator, at an effective spatial sampling of 4 μm/pixel and a field of view of 2.56 x 1.92u2005mm2.At the request of all authors of the paper and with the agreement of the proceedings editors an updated version of this article was published on 1 September 2016. An older version of the paper was inadvertently supplied to AIP Publishing and the final version is now available.