Physicists demonstrate crucial method for monitoring ultra short X-ray pulses
With their ultra short X-ray flashes, free-electron lasers offer the opportunity to film chemical reactions or atoms in motion. However, for this super slow motion the arrival time and the temporal profile of the pulses must be precisely known. An international team of scientists has now developed a measurement technique that provides complete temporal characterization of individual FEL (free-electron laser) pulses at DESY´s soft-X-ray free-electron laser FLASH. The team, led by Adrian Cavalieri from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) in Hamburg, was able to measure the temporal profile of each X-ray pulse with femtosecond precision (a femtosecond is a quadrillionth of a second). Their technique can be implemented at any of the world´s X-ray free-electron lasers, ultimately allowing for most effective utilization of these sources. The results are published in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature Photonics.