An Experimental Setup for Probing the Thermal Properties of Diamond Regarding Its Use in an XFELO

Abstract

This work presents an pump-probe setup for measuring the thermal evolution of diamond crystals at cryogenic temperatures under the heat load conditions of an X-ray free electron laser oscillator (XFELO). As the diamond Bragg reflectors of an XFELO are subjected to intense heat loads during operation, the correct understanding of the thermal evolution in diamond plays a major role in the correct modeling of an XFELO. Stoupin et al.* did a room temperature x-ray diffraction measurement on the nanosecond transient thermal response of diamond to an optical pulse. The measurements presented in this paper for the first time incorporate effects due to the very short penetration depth of only a few μm of an XFELO pulse in combination with the high mean free path in diamond at cryogenic temperatures. While at room temperature the heat equation based on Fourier's law accurately fits the measured results, this vastly changes due to the onset of ballistic processes at cryogenic temperatures. These changes, which are hard to predict theoretically, show the necessity of measurements of the thermal evolution in diamond with special regard to a correct mimicking of the heat load in an XFELO.