Optical tailoring of xFEL beams

Abstract

There is an inherent exibility unique to free electron lasers (FELs) that lends well to experimental approaches normally too difficult for other light sources to accomplish. This includes the ability to optically shape the electron bunch prior to final its acceleration for the final FEL process. Optical pulse shaping of the electron bunch can enable both femtosecond and attosecond level FEL pulse control. Pulse shaping is currently implemented, not optically but mechanically, in LCLS-I with an adjustable foil slit that physically spoils the momentum phase of the electron bunch. This selectively suppresses the downstream FEL process ofspoiled electrons. Such a mechanical spoiling method fails for both the soft x-ray regime as well as the high repetition rates that are planned in LCLS-II. Our proposed optical spoiling method circumvents this limitation by making use of the existing ultrafast laser beam that is typically used for adjusting the energy spread for the initial electron bunch. Using Fourier domain shaping we can nearly arbitrarily shape the laser pulses to affect the electron bunch. This can selectively spoil electrons within each bunch. Here we demonstrate the viability of this approach with a programmable acousto-optic dispersive filter. This method is not only well suited formore » LCLS-II but also has several advantages over mechanical spoiling, including lack of radiation concerns, experiment specific FEL pulse shapes, and real-time adjustment for applications that require high duty-cycle variation such as lock-in amplification of small signals.« less