• A. Winter, P. Schmuser, A. Winter
  Uni HH, Hamburg
• J. Chen, F.O. Ilday, F.X. Kaertner, J. Kim
  MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• H. Schlarb
  DESY, Hamburg

Fourth-generation light sources, such as the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) require timing signals distributed over distances of several kilometers with a stability in the order of femtoseconds. A promising approach is the use of a mode-locked laser that generates sub-picosecond pulses which are distributed in timing stabilized optical fiber links. A good candidate for a laser master oscillator (LMO) is a mode-locked Erbium-doped fiber laser, featuring extremely low phase noise far from the carrier. Results on the development of the LMO locked to an external reference microwave oscillator to suppress low frequency jitter, the distribution via timing stabilized optical fiber links and the reconversion of the optical pulses to a low phase noise microwave RF signals with overall femtosecond stability are presented.

• H. Delsim-Hashemi, O. Grimm, J. Rossbach, H. Schlarb, B. Schmidt, P. Schmuser
  DESY, Hamburg
• A.F.G. van der Meer
  FOM Rijnhuizen, Nieuwegein

Funding: DESY

FEL facilities are pushing to achieve higher peak currents mainly by means of compressing bunches longitudinally. This process defines a machine parameter that has to be fine-tuned empirically. Among the operational types of diagnostic tools for longitudinal phase-space are those based on IR spectroscopy. The most commonly used IR spectrometers at the FEL facilities are operating in the scanning mode and are not fast enough to be applicable for monitoring bunch compression. On the other hand, any non-scanning spectrometer may suffer from the low intensity that is available from coherent IR radiation in short time intervals in different wavelengths. The proposed "Single Shot Spectrometer" is based on using gratings as dispersive elements. Pioneering tests with a transmission grating have shown the feasibility of the concept. In a second step, a version with "Reflective Blazed Grating" will be tested and should allow getting the maximum available signal for the whole spectrum and improved resolution. Parallel to the study of optical parts, an array of pyroelectric detectors with integrated multi-channel readout is under development.

• B. Steffen, S. Casalbuoni, E.-A. Knabbe, B. Schmidt
  DESY, Hamburg
• P. Schmuser, A. Winter
  Uni HH, Hamburg

For the operation of a SASE FEL, the longitudinal bunch profile is one of the most critical parameters. At the superconducting linac of the VUV-FEL at DESY, we have installed an electro optic spectral decoding (EOSD) experiment to probe the time structure of the electric field of the bunches to better than 200 fs rms. The field induced birefringence of a ZnTe crystal is detected by a 30 femtosecond laser pulse (TiSa) and the time structure is measured by encoding it on the spectrum of the chirped TiSa pulse. First results on jitter measurements and for the bunch length as function of the linac parameters are presented.

• A. Winter, H. Schlarb
  DESY, Hamburg
• dc. Cheever, J. Chen, F.O. Ilday, F.X. Kaertner, J. Kim, D. Wang, T. Zwart
  MIT, Middleton, Massachusetts
• P. Schmuser
  Uni HH, Hamburg

X-ray pulses with a pulse duration of down to 30 fs FWHM or even sub-fs are desired for various experiments planned at next generation free electron lasers, such as the European XFEL. A synchronization of the probe system in the experimental area to the x-ray pulses with stability on the order of the pulse width is highly desirable for these experiments. This requirement translates to distributing an ultra-stable timing signal to various subsystems of the machine and the experimental area to provide synchronization at the fs level over distances of up to several kilometers. A few years ago, a timing and synchronization system providing stability to the fs level was unthinkable. Recent advances in the field of ultra-short pulse lasers have made optical synchronization systems with such a precision feasible. This talk will focus on an optical approach using a train of ultra-short pulses distributed through optical fiber links. The timing information is contained in the precise repetition rate. First results of such a system operating in an accelerator environment will be reported.