A novel monochromator for experiments with ultrashort X-ray pulses

Highly efficient soft x-ray spectrometer for transient absorption spectroscopy with broadband table-top high harmonic sources

We present a novel soft x-ray spectrometer for ultrafast absorption spectroscopy utilizing table-top femtosecond high-order harmonic sources. Where most commercially available spectrometers rely on spherical variable line space gratings with a typical efficiency on the order of 3% in the first diffractive order, this spectrometer, based on a Hettrick-Underwood design, includes a reflective zone plate as a dispersive element. An improved efficiency of 12% at the N K-edge is achieved, accompanied by a resolving power of 890. The high performance of the soft x-ray spectrometer is further demonstrated by comparing nitrogen K-edge absorption spectra from calcium nitrate in aqueous solution obtained with our high-order harmonic source to previous measurements performed at the electron storage ring facility BESSY II.

Flat Field Soft X-ray Spectrometry with Reflection Zone Plates on a Curved Substrate

We report on the first experimental results obtained with a newly designed instrument for high-resolution soft X-ray spectroscopy, using reflection zone plates (RZPs) on a spherical substrate. The spectrometer was tested with a fluorescence source. High-resolution flat field spectra within ±50% around the design energies were measured at an interval of 150–750 eV, using only two RZPs: the first RZP, with its design energy of 277 eV, covered the band of 150–370 eV, and the second RZP, with a design energy of 459 eV, covered the band of 350–750 eV, where the upper boundary of this energy range was defined by the Ni coating of the RZPs. The absolute quantum efficiency of the spectrometer, including the optical element and the detector, was, on average, above 10%, and reached 20% at the designed energies of the RZPs. The resolving power E/∆E exceeded 600 for energies E inside the core range of 200–550 eV.

Conception of diffractive wavefront correction for XUV and soft x-ray spectroscopy

We present a simple and precise method to minimize aberrations of mirror-based, wavelength-dispersive spectrometers for the extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and soft x-ray domain. The concept enables an enhanced resolving power $ E/\Delta E $E/ΔE, in particular, close to the diffraction limit over a spectral band of a few percent around the design energy of the instrument. Our optical element, the "diffractive wavefront corrector" (DWC), is individually shaped to the form and figure error of the mirror profile and might be written directly with a laser on a plane and even strongly curved substrates. Theory and simulations of various configurations, like Hettrick-Underwood or compact, highly efficient all-in-one setups for $ {{\rm TiO}_2} $TiO₂ spectroscopy with $ E/\Delta E \mathbin{\lower.3ex\hbox{$\buildrel{\displaystyle{\lt}}\over{\smash{\displaystyle\sim}\vphantom{_x}}$}} 4.5 \times {10^4} $E/ΔE∼_x<4.5×10⁴, are addressed, as well as aspects of their experimental realization.

Cost-effective plane-grating monochromator design for extreme-ultraviolet application

The optical design of a plane-grating monochromator mainly intended for high resolution in the extreme ultraviolet and soft x-ray is presented. The configuration has three optical elements. It uses a uniform line-spaced plane grating illuminated in the converging light coming from a focusing concave mirror and an additional plane mirror that is needed to change the grating subtended angle to keep the system in focus on a fixed slit. The parameters of the focusing mirror are determined to introduce a coma that compensates for the coma given by the grating. A monochromator for the 12-50 eV region is designed for application to high-order laser harmonics.

Highly efficient soft X-ray spectrometer based on a reflection zone plate for resonant inelastic X-ray scattering measurements

We present a newly designed compact and flexible soft X-ray spectrometer for resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) studies within an energy range from 380 eV to 410 eV, which would include the K alpha emission lines of vital elements like nitrogen. We utilized an off-axis reflection zone plate (RZP) as the wavelength selective element with a maximum line density of 10000 l/mm. A higher energy resolution over a broader range of ± 15 eV around the designed energy was achieved by displacing the RZP. Additionally, for the first time, an actual optical side effect, the so-called comatic aberration was exploited to increase the energy resolution. First results show a resolving power in the order of 1300 for photon energy of 395 eV, which is comparable to a commercial varied line spacing grating (VLS).

Photoinduced Demagnetization and Insulator-to-Metal Transition in Ferromagnetic Insulating BaFeO_{3} Thin Films

We studied the electronic and magnetic dynamics of ferromagnetic insulating BaFeO_{3} thin films by using pump-probe time-resolved resonant x-ray reflectivity at the Fe 2p edge. By changing the excitation density, we found two distinctly different types of demagnetization with a clear threshold behavior. We assigned the demagnetization change from slow (∼150  ps) to fast (<70  ps) to a transition into a metallic state induced by laser excitation. These results provide a novel approach for locally tuning magnetic dynamics. In analogy to heat-assisted magnetic recording, metallization can locally tune the susceptibility for magnetic manipulation, allowing one to spatially encode magnetic information.

Analysis of the halo background in femtosecond slicing experiments

The slicing facility FemtoSpeX at BESSY II offers unique opportunities to study photo-induced dynamics on femtosecond time scales by means of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, resonant and non-resonant X-ray diffraction, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy experiments in the soft X-ray regime. Besides femtosecond X-ray pulses, slicing sources inherently also produce a so-called `halo' background with a different time structure, polarization and pointing. Here a detailed experimental characterization of the halo radiation is presented, and a method is demonstrated for its correct and unambiguous removal from femtosecond time-resolved data using a special laser triggering scheme as well as analytical models. Examples are given for time-resolved measurements with corresponding halo correction, and errors of the relevant physical quantities caused by either neglecting or by applying a simplified model to describe this background are estimated.

Hard x-ray spectroscopy and imaging by a reflection zone plate in the presence of astigmatism

The feasibility of an off-axis x-ray reflection zone plate to perform wavelength-dispersive spectroscopy, on-axis point focusing, and two-dimensional imaging is demonstrated by means of one and the same diffractive optical element (DOE) at a synchrotron radiation facility. The resolving power varies between 3×10¹ and 4×10² in the range of 7.6 keV to 9.0 keV, with its maximum at the design energy of 8.3 keV. This result is verified using an adjustable entrance slit, by which horizontal (H) and vertical (V) focusing to 0.85 μm(H) and 1.29 μm(V) is obtained near the sagittal focal plane of the astigmatic configuration. An angular and axial scan proves an accessible field of view of at least 0.6 arcmin × 0.8 arcmin and a focal depth of ±0.86  mm. Supported by the grating efficiency of around 17.5% and a very short pulse elongation, future precision x-ray fluorescence and absorption studies of transition metals at their K-edge on an ultrashort timescale could benefit from our findings.

Femtosecond high-resolution hard X-ray spectroscopy using reflection zone plates

An off-axis total external reflection zone plate is applied to wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectrometry in the range from 7.8 keV to 9.0 keV. The resolving power E/ΔE of up to 1.1 × 10(2), demonstrated in a synchrotron proof-of-concept experiment, competes well with existing energy-dispersive instruments in this spectral range. In conjunction with the detection efficiency of (2.2 ± 0.6)%, providing a fairly constant count rate across the 1.2 keV band, the temporal pulse elongation to no more than 1.5 × 10(-15) s opens the door to wide-range, ultra-fast hard X-ray spectroscopy at free-electron lasers (FELs).

FemtoSpeX: a versatile optical pump-soft X-ray probe facility with 100 fs X-ray pulses of variable polarization

Here the major upgrades of the femtoslicing facility at BESSY II (Khan et al., 2006) are reviewed, giving a tutorial on how elliptical-polarized ultrashort soft X-ray pulses from electron storage rings are generated at high repetition rates. Employing a 6 kHz femtosecond-laser system consisting of two amplifiers that are seeded by one Ti:Sa oscillator, the total average flux of photons of 100 fs duration (FWHM) has been increased by a factor of 120 to up to 10(6) photons s(-1) (0.1% bandwidth)(-1) on the sample in the range from 250 to 1400 eV. Thanks to a new beamline design, a factor of 20 enhanced flux and improvements of the stability together with the top-up mode of the accelerator have been achieved. The previously unavoidable problem of increased picosecond-background at higher repetition rates, caused by `halo' photons, has also been solved by hopping between different `camshaft' bunches in a dedicated fill pattern (`3+1 camshaft fill') of the storage ring. In addition to an increased X-ray performance at variable (linear and elliptical) polarization, the sample excitation in pump-probe experiments has been considerably extended using an optical parametric amplifier that supports the range from the near-UV to the far-IR regime. Dedicated endstations covering ultrafast magnetism experiments based on time-resolved X-ray circular dichroism have been either upgraded or, in the case of time-resolved resonant soft X-ray diffraction and reflection, newly constructed and adapted to femtoslicing requirements. Experiments at low temperatures down to 6 K and magnetic fields up to 0.5 T are supported. The FemtoSpeX facility is now operated as a 24 h user facility enabling a new class of experiments in ultrafast magnetism and in the field of transient phenomena and phase transitions in solids.

New parallel wavelength-dispersive spectrometer based on scanning electron microscope

A new wavelength - dispersive X-ray spectrometer for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been developed. This spectrometer can cover an energy range from 50 eV to 1120 eV by using an array made of seventeen reflection zone plates. Soft X-ray emission spectra of simple elements of Li, Be, B, C, N, Ti, V, O, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn and Ga were measured. The overall energy resolving power on the order of E/ΔE ~80 to 160 has been demonstrated. Spectrometer with 200 reflection zone plates has been used as a multi-channel analyser in the energy range of 100 - 1000 eV for quasi - continuous spectra measurements. The predicted energy-resolving power on the order of E/ΔE = 50 has been achieved in the entire energy range.

Design and optimization of a parallel spectrometer for ultra-fast X-ray science

In the present work, different varied line space (VLS) and reflection zone plate (RZP) gratings are analyzed for their suitability in low-signal femtosecond soft X-ray spectroscopy. The need for high efficiency suggests a straightened focal line whose sharpness and residual curvature will determine the quality. One- and two-dimensional VLS structures feature an attractive trade-off between a sufficient optical performance and a strongly relaxed fabrication, due to moderate line densities which are easily accessible by e-beam lithography. Based on fanned-out RZP arrays, their continuous limit version is identified to generate an almost perfect focal line however, with an aberration level three orders of magnitude better than for the VLS gratings and well below the diffraction limit over large acceptance angles.

Monochromatization of femtosecond XUV light pulses with the use of reflection zone plates

We report on a newly built laser-based tabletop setup which enables generation of femtosecond light pulses in the XUV range employing the process of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in a gas medium. The spatial, spectral, and temporal characteristics of the XUV beam are presented. Monochromatization of XUV light with minimum temporal pulse distortion is the central issue of this work. Off-center reflection zone plates are shown to be advantageous when selection of a desired harmonic is carried out with the use of a single optical element. A cross correlation technique was applied to characterize the performance of the zone plates in the time domain. By using laser pulses of 25 fs length to pump the HHG process, a pulse duration of 45 fs for monochromatized harmonics was achieved in the present setup.

Monochromatizing and focussing femtosecond high-order harmonic radiation with one optical element

A novel approach for monochromatizing and focussing the Vacuum-Ultraviolet and soft x-ray radiation from high-order harmonic generation of a femtosecond optical laser with only one optical element is presented. We demonstrate that off-axis reflection zone plates applied as focussing monochromators allow for efficiently optimizing the trade-off between energy resolution and temporal dispersion of the femtosecond pulses. In the current experimental realization, we show how the temporal dispersion can be varied between 2 fs and 16 fs with a correlating variation of the energy resolution E/ΔE between 20 and 90 for an off-axis reflection zone plate optimized for harmonic 13 at 20.41 eV. We also show how the focal spot size varies correspondingly between 80 × 90 μm(2) and 290 × 140 μm(2) as determined with a computational fitting approach based on a 3D Gaussian model. The diffraction efficiency for the tested zone plates amounts to up to 10%. We furthermore evaluate the influence of pointing stability on the performance of the zone plates. Based on our results we propose an optimized realization of a dedicated beam line for femtosecond pulses from high-order harmonic generation with an off-axis reflection zone plate.