STFC/RAL, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon
STFC/DL/ASTeC, Daresbury, Warrington, Cheshire
University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee, Scotland
The NLS project team is designing a UK-based ultrashort light pulse facility covering the whole spectrum from the terahertz to the soft X-ray. It will be based on a suite of sources including seeded FELs, conventional lasers and undulators. Experiments will frequently be multi-beam and will often depend on precise management of the pulse timings. With pulse durations of ~20fs or less the aim will be to reduce timing jitter to the 10-20fs level. In addition to the needs of the NLS’s users, stable operation of the machine itself will also require adequate timing control. In particular reproducible FEL operation will depend on good temporal overlap between the seed photons and the electron bunches. This paper covers both the underlying issues, (e.g. choice of pulse rates, passive and active timing management, requirements specification) and also the approaches taken in specific NLS areas (e.g. choice of clock and distribution system, management of electron bunch timing, management of fluctuations in beam transport paths). An overall jitter budget is presented.
