Development of new diagnostics based on LiF detector for pump-probe experiments

We present new diagnostics for use in optical laser pump-X-ray Free Electron Laser(XFEL)probe experiments to monitor dimensions,intensity profile and focusability of the XFEL beam and to control initial quality and homogeneity of targets to be driven by optical laser pulse.By developing X-ray imaging,based on the use of an LiF crystal detector,we were able to measure the distribution of energy inside a hard X-ray beam with unprecedented high spatial resolution(~1 mm)and across a field of view larger than some millimetres.This diagnostic can be used in situ,provides a very high dynamic range,has an extremely limited cost,and is relatively easy to be implemented in pump-probe experiments.The proposed methods were successfully applied in pump-probe experiments at the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser(SACLA)XFEL facility and its potential was demonstrated for current and future High Energy Density Science experiments.

Stabilization of a high-order harmonic generation seeded extreme ultraviolet free electron laser by time-synchronization control with electro-optic sampling

A fully coherent free electron laser(FEL) seeded with a higher-order harmonic(HH) pulse from high-order harmonic generation(HHG) is successfully operated for a sufficiently prolonged time in pilot user experiments by using a timing drift feedback. For HHG-seeded FELs, the seeding laser pulses have to be synchronized with electron bunches. Despite seeded FELs being non-chaotic light sources in principle, external laser-seeded FELs are often unstable in practice because of a timing jitter and a drift between the seeding laser pulses and the accelerated electron bunches. Accordingly,we constructed a relative arrival-timing monitor based on non-invasive electro-optic sampling(EOS). The EOS monitor made uninterrupted shot-to-shot monitoring possible even during the seeded FEL operation. The EOS system was then used for arrival-timing feedback with an adjustability of 100 fs for continual operation of the HHG-seeded FEL. Using the EOS-based beam drift controlling system, the HHG-seeded FEL was operated over half a day with an effective hit rate of 20%–30%. The output pulse energy was 20 μJ at the 61.2 nm wavelength. Towards seeded FELs in the water window region, we investigated our upgrade plan to seed high-power FELs with HH photon energy of 30–100 e V and lase at shorter wavelengths of up to 2 nm through high-gain harmonic generation(HGHG) at the energy-upgraded SPring-8Compact SASE Source(SCSS) accelerator. We studied a benefit as well as the feasibility of the next HHG-seeded FEL machine with single-stage HGHG with tunability of a lasing wavelength.

An event mixing technique for Bose-Einstein correlations of two pions in photoproduction around 1 GeV

We have developed an event mixing technique to observe Bose-Einstein correlations （BEC） between two identical neutral pions produced in photo-induced reactions in the non-perturbative QCD energy region. It is found that the missing-mass consistency cut and the pion-energy cut are essential for the event mixing method to effectively extract BEC observables. A Monte Carlo （MC） simulation is used to validate these constraints and confirms the efficiency of this method. Our work paves the way for similar BEC studies at lower energies where the multiplicity of emitted bosons is limited.

π~0 Photoproduction on Deuteron for Photon Energies from 0.6 to 1.15 GeV

Differential and total cross sections of the γp→π0p and the γd→π0pn reaction were measured for photon energies between 640 and 1 150 MeV. The data have been compared with SAID and MAID model calculations. π0 photoproduction on the deuteron shows a strong suppression of the 2nd resonance which is clearly seen in the γp→π0p reaction.