Measuring the frequency chirp of extreme-ultraviolet free-electron laser pulses by transient absorption spectroscopy

Thomas Ding*, Marc Rebholz, Lennart Aufleger, Maximilian Hartmann, Veit Stooß, Alexander Magunia, Paul Birk, Gergana Dimitrova Borisova, David Wachs, Carina da Costa Castanheira, Patrick Rupprecht, Yonghao Mi, Andrew R. Attar, Thomas Gaumnitz, Zhi Heng Loh, Sebastian Roling, Marco Butz, Helmut Zacharias, Stefan Düsterer, Rolf TreuschArvid Eislage, Stefano M. Cavaletto, Christian Ott*, Thomas Pfeifer*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

High-intensity ultrashort pulses at extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and x-ray photon energies, delivered by state-of-the-art free-electron lasers (FELs), are revolutionizing the field of ultrafast spectroscopy. For crossing the next frontiers of research, precise, reliable and practical photonic tools for the spectro-temporal characterization of the pulses are becoming steadily more important. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a technique for the direct measurement of the frequency chirp of extreme-ultraviolet free-electron laser pulses based on fundamental nonlinear optics. It is implemented in XUV-only pump-probe transient-absorption geometry and provides in-situ information on the time-energy structure of FEL pulses. Using a rate-equation model for the time-dependent absorbance changes of an ionized neon target, we show how the frequency chirp can be directly extracted and quantified from measured data. Since the method does not rely on an additional external field, we expect a widespread implementation at FELs benefiting multiple science fields by in-situ on-target measurement and optimization of FEL-pulse properties.

Original languageEnglish
Article number643
JournalNature Communications
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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