DESY, Hamburg
Uni HH, Hamburg
The free-electron laser user facility FLASH at DESY, Germany is the world-wide leading SASE-FEL operating in the VUV and the soft X-ray wavelengths range. At present, FLASH provides fully coherent femtosecond laser radiation from 47 nm down to 6.5 nm and higher harmonics. Late 2009, FLASH will be upgraded with an additional superconducting TESLA type accelerating module boosting its beam energy to 1.2 GeV. This will allow lasing with a wavelength below 5 nm. In addition, a 3rd harmonic accelerating cavity will be installed. It allows to flatten and to a certain extend shape the longitudinal phase space improving the overall performance of the facility.
Uni HH, Hamburg
DESY, Hamburg
PSI, Villigen
DELTA, Dortmund
BESSY GmbH, Berlin
Funding: This work is supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung under contract 05 ES7GU1
A seeded free-electron laser operating in the soft X-ray (XUV) spectral range will be added to the SASE FEL facility FLASH. For this purpose, a 40 m long section upstream of the existing SASE undulator will be rebuilt during the shutdown in fall 2009. This includes the injection of the seed beam into a new 10 m variable-gap undulator, the out-coupling of the seeded FEL radiation and all diagnostics for photon- and electron beams. The XUV seed pulse is generated by high harmonics (HHG) from a near-infrared laser, optically synchronized with FLASH. After amplification within the undulators the XUV light will be guided towards diagnostic stations. Besides a proof-of-principle demonstration for seeding at short wavelength the purpose of this development is to provide future pump-probe experiments with a more stable FEL source in terms of spectral properties and timing.
DESY, Hamburg
The free-electron laser facility FLASH at DESY, Germany is the world-wide unique SASE-FEL operating in the VUV and the soft X-ray wavelengths range. Since Summer 2005, FLASH operates as a user facility providing fully coherent 10 to 50 femtosecond long laser radiation in the wavelength range from 47 nm to 6.5 nm and with an unprecedented brilliance - many orders of magnitude higher than any other facility. The SASE radiation contains also higher harmonics. Several experiments have successfully used the third and fifth harmonics, in the latter case with a wavelength down to 1.59 nm. In addition, FLASH serves as a pilot facility for the European XFEL. Part of the beam time is reserved for general accelerator studies which also includes ILC related studies.
