A tabletop femtosecond time-resolved soft x-ray transient absorption spectrometer

A laser-based, tabletop instrument is constructed to perform femtosecond soft x-ray transient absorption spectroscopy. Ultrashort soft x-ray pulses produced via high-order harmonic generation of the amplified output of a femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser system are used to probe atomic core-level transient absorptions in atoms and molecules. The results provide chemically specific, time-resolved dynamics with sub-50-fs time resolution. In this setup, high-order harmonics generated in a Ne-filled capillary waveguide are refocused by a gold-coated toroidal mirror into the sample gas cell, where the soft x-ray light intersects with an optical pump pulse. The transmitted high-order harmonics are spectrally dispersed with a homebuilt soft x-ray spectrometer, which consists of a gold-coated toroidal mirror, a uniform-line spaced plane grating, and a soft x-ray charge coupled device camera. The optical layout of the instrument, design of the soft x-ray spectrometer, and spatial and temporal characterizations of the high-order harmonics are described. Examples of static and time-resolved photoabsorption spectra collected on this apparatus are presented.     

Wide angle crystal spectrometer for angularly and spectrally resolved X-ray scattering experiments

A novel wide angle spectrometer has been implemented with a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite crystal coupled to an image plate. This spectrometer has allowed us to look at the energy resolved spectrum of scattered x rays from a dense plasma over a wide range of angles (approximately 30 degrees ) in a single shot. Using this spectrometer we were able to observe the temporal evolution of the angular scatter cross section from a laser shocked foil. A spectrometer of this type may also be useful in investigations of x-ray line transfer from laser-plasmas experiments.     

High repetition rate laser produced soft x-ray source for ultrafast x-ray absorption near edge structure measurements

Recent progress in high intensity ultrafast laser systems provides the opportunity to produce laser plasma x-ray sources exhibiting broad spectrum and high average x-ray flux that are well adapted to x-ray absorption measurements. In this paper, the development of a laser based x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) beamline exhibiting high repetition rate by using the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) facility 100 Hz laser system (100 mJ, 35 fs at 800 nm) is presented. This system is based on a broadband tantalum solid target soft x-ray source and a grazing incidence grating spectrometer in the 1-5 nm wavelength range. To demonstrate the high potential of this laser based XANES technique in condensed matter physics, material science, or biology, measurements realized with several samples are presented: VO2 vanadium L edge, Si3N4 nitrogen K edge, and BPDA/PPD polyimide carbon K edge. The characteristics of this laser based beamline are discussed in terms of brightness, signal to noise ratio, and compared to conventional synchrotron broadband x-ray sources which allow achieving similar measurements. Apart from the very compact size and the relative low cost, the main advantages of such a laser based soft x-ray source are the picosecond pulse duration and the perfect synchronization between this x-ray probe and a laser pulse excitation which open the way to the realization of time resolved x-ray absorption measurements with picosecond range time resolution to study the dynamics of ultrafast processes and phase transition.     

A multi-crystal wavelength dispersive x-ray spectrometer

A multi-crystal wavelength dispersive hard x-ray spectrometer with high-energy resolution and large solid angle collection is described. The instrument is specifically designed for time-resolved applications of x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and x-ray Raman scattering (XRS) at X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFEL) and synchrotron radiation facilities. It also simplifies resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) studies of the whole 2d RIXS plane. The spectrometer is based on the Von Hamos geometry. This dispersive setup enables an XES or XRS spectrum to be measured in a single-shot mode, overcoming the scanning needs of the Rowland circle spectrometers. In conjunction with the XFEL temporal profile and high-flux, it is a powerful tool for studying the dynamics of time-dependent systems. Photo-induced processes and fast catalytic reaction kinetics, ranging from femtoseconds to milliseconds, will be resolvable in a wide array of systems circumventing radiation damage.     

Efficient Kalpha x-ray source from submillijoule femtosecond laser pulses operated at kilohertz repetition rate

We report an efficient Cu K(alpha) x-ray source produced by focusing submillijoule, 120 fs Ti:sapphire laser pulses on a solid copper target to a spot diameter of few microns. The experimental results show strong emission of K(alpha) x-rays from solid targets from microplasmas created by p-polarized 0.2-0.3 mJ laser pulses at 1 kHz repetition rate. We have demonstrated K(alpha) x-ray point source emission rates of 6.7 x 10(9) photonss into 2 pi sr at 1 kHz repetition rate. The source has an x-ray conversion efficiency into Cu K(alpha) line emission of 3.2 x 10(-5). The source has a measured size of approximately 8 microm. Such a high repetition rate K(alpha) x-ray source can be very useful for time resolved x-ray diffraction and radiographic applications.     

Design and measurement of a Cu L-edge x-ray filter for free electron laser pumped x-ray laser experiments

An inner-shell photoionized x-ray laser pumped by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) free electron laser has been proposed recently. The measurement of the on-axis 849 eV Ne?Kα laser and protection of the x-ray spectrometer from damage require attenuation of the 1 keV LCLS beam. An Al/Cu foil combination is well suited, serving as a low energy bandpass filter below the Cu L-edge at 933 eV. A high resolution grating spectrometer is used to measure the transmission of a candidate filter with an intense laser-produced x-ray backlighter developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Jupiter Laser Facility Janus. The methodology and discussion of the observed fine structure above the Cu L-edge will be presented.     

XUV laser-plasma source based on solid Ar filament

We present a laser driven soft x-ray source based on a novel solid argon filament. The continuously flowing micron-sized filament (diameter approximately 56 microm, flow speed approximately 5 mms) was used as a laser target in order to generate a plasma source of high brightness in the "water window" (2.2-4.4 nm) spectral range. The emission properties of the source were characterized in detail with respect to crucial parameters such as positional and energy stability using an extreme ultraviolet (XUV) sensitive pinhole camera and an XUV spectrometer. The results are compared with an argon plasma based on a gas puff target operated under the same experimental conditions showing an increase of the brilliance by a factor of 84. By changing the capillary geometry from a constant diameter to a convergent shape the flow speed of the filament was significantly increased up to 250 mms, facilitating the operation at higher repetition rates.     

High-energy x-ray backlighter spectrum measurements using calibrated image plates

The x-ray spectrum between 18 and 88 keV generated by a petawatt laser driven x-ray backlighter target was measured using a 12-channel differential filter pair spectrometer. The spectrometer consists of a series of filter pairs on a Ta mask coupled with an x-ray sensitive image plate. A calibration of Fuji? MS and SR image plates was conducted using a tungsten anode x-ray source and the resulting calibration applied to the design of the Ross pair spectrometer. Additionally, the fade rate and resolution of the image plate system were measured for quantitative radiographic applications. The conversion efficiency of laser energy into silver Kα x rays from a petawatt laser target was measured using the differential filter pair spectrometer and compared to measurements using a single photon counting charge coupled device.     

纳秒激光等离子体光源的光谱测量技术

提出了一种新的探测和测量激光等离子体软X射线源光谱强度的方法。此方法使用通道电子倍增器和定标过的硅光电二极管为探测器,前者是非标准探测器,后者为标准探测器。应用电荷灵敏前置放大器和峰值探测器测量探测器产生的电量,并以高分辨率的光谱仪为分光元件,在已知光栅效率、通道电子倍增器增益、硅光电二极管能量响应的条件下,给出了计算激光等离子体软X射线源在某一波长光谱强度的公式。     

Mapping the ionization state of laser-irradiated Ar gas jets with multiwavelength monochromatic x-ray imaging

Two-dimensional monochromatic images of fast-electron stimulated Ar?Kα and He-α x-ray self-emission have recorded a time-integrated map of the extent of Ar(≈6+) and Ar(16+) ions, respectively, within a high density (10(20)?cm(-3) atomic density) Ar plasma. This plasma was produced by irradiating a 2 mm wide clustering Ar gas jet with an ultrahigh intensity (10(19)?W/cm(2), 50 TW) Ti:sapphire laser operating at 800 nm. Spherically bent quartz crystals in the 200 (for Kα) and 201 (for He-α) planes were used as near-normal incidence reflective x-ray optics. We see that a large (830?μm long) region of plasma emits Kα primarily along the laser axis, while the He-α emission is confined to smaller hot spot (230?μm long) region that likely corresponds to the focal volume of the f/8 laser beam. X-ray spectra from a Bragg spectrometer operating in the von Hamos geometry indicate that the centroids of the Kα and He-α emission regions are separated by approximately 330?μm along the laser axis.     

Application of a transmission crystal x-ray spectrometer to moderate-intensity laser driven sources

In the pursuit of novel, laser-produced x-ray sources for medical imaging applications, appropriate instrumental diagnostics need to be developed concurrently. A type of transmission crystal spectroscopy has previously been demonstrated as a survey tool for sources produced by high-power and high-energy lasers. The present work demonstrates the extension of this method into the study of medium-intensity laser driven hard x-ray sources with a design that preserves resolving power while maintaining high sensitivity. Specifically, spectroscopic measurements of characteristic Kα and Kβ emissions were studied from Mo targets irradiated by a 100 fs, 200 mJ, Ti: sapphire laser with intensity of 10(17) W/cm(2) to 10(18) W∕cm(2) per shot. Using a transmission curved crystal spectrometer and off-Rowland circle imaging, resolving powers (E/ΔE) of around 300 for Mo Kα(2) at 17.37 keV were obtained with an end-to-end spectrometer efficiency of (1.13 ± 0.10) × 10(-5). This sensitivity is sufficient for registering x-ray lines with high signal to background from targets following irradiation by a single laser pulse, demonstrating the utility of this method in the study of the development of medium-intensity laser driven x-ray sources.     

Five-element Johann-type x-ray emission spectrometer with a single-photon-counting pixel detector

A Johann-type spectrometer with five spherically bent crystals and a pixel detector was constructed for a range of hard x-ray photon-in photon-out synchrotron techniques, covering a Bragg-angle range of 60°-88°. The spectrometer provides a sub emission line width energy resolution from sub-eV to a few eV and precise energy calibration, better than 1.5 eV for the full range of Bragg angles. The use of a pixel detector allows fast and easy optimization of the signal-to-background ratio. A concentration detection limit below 0.4 wt% was reached at the Cu Kα(1) line. The spectrometer is designed as a modular mobile device for easy integration in a multi-purpose hard x-ray synchrotron beamline, such as the SuperXAS beamline at the Swiss Light Source.     

Design and performance of a versatile curved-crystal spectrometer for high-resolution spectroscopy in the tender x-ray range

A complete in-vacuum curved-crystal x-ray emission spectrometer in Johansson geometry has been constructed for a 2-6 keV energy range with sub natural line-width energy resolution. The spectrometer is designed to measure x-ray emission induced by photon and charged particle impact on solid and gaseous targets. It works with a relatively large x-ray source placed inside the Rowland circle and employs position sensitive detection of diffracted x-rays. Its compact modular design enables fast and easy installation at a synchrotron or particle accelerator beamline. The paper presents main characteristics of the spectrometer and illustrates its capabilities by showing few selected experimental examples.     

X-ray crystal spectrometer for opacity measurements in the 8-18 Å spectral range at the LULI laser facility

An x-ray crystal spectrometer was built in order to measure opacities in the 8-18 A? spectral range with an average spectral resolution of <λ/δλ> ～ 400. It has been successfully used at the LULI-2000 laser facility (See C. Sauteret, rapport LULI 2001, 88 (2002) at E?cole Polytechnique (France) to measure in the same experimental conditions the 2p-3d transitions of several elements with the neighboring atomic number Z: Fe, Ni, Cu, and Ge [G. Loisel et al., High Energy Density Phys. 5, 173 (2009)]. Hence, a spectrometer with a wide spectral range is needed. This spectrometer features two lines of sight. In this example, one line of sight looks through the sample and the other one is looking directly at the backlighter emission. Both are outfitted with a spherical condensing mirror. A TlAP crystal is used for spectral dispersion. Detection is made with an image plate Fuji BAS TR2025, which is sensitive to x rays. We present some experimental results showing the performances of this spectrometer.     

Calibration of a high resolution grating soft x-ray spectrometer

The calibration of the soft x-ray spectral response of a large radius of curvature, high resolution grating spectrometer (HRGS) with a back-illuminated charge-coupled device detector is reported. The instrument is cross-calibrated for the 10-50 A? waveband at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory electron beam ion trap (EBIT) x-ray source with the EBIT calorimeter spectrometer. The HRGS instrument is designed for laser-produced plasma experiments and is important for making high dynamic range measurements of line intensities, line shapes, and x-ray sources.     

Hard x-ray transmission crystal spectrometer at the OMEGA-EP laser facility

The transmission crystal spectrometer (TCS) is approved for taking data at the OMEGA-EP laser facility since 2009 and will be available for the OMEGA target chamber in 2010. TCS utilizes a Cauchois type cylindrically bent transmission crystal geometry with a source to crystal distance of 600 mm. Spectral images are recorded by image plates in four positions, one IP on the Rowland circle and three others at 200, 400, and 600 mm beyond the Rowland circle. An earlier version of TCS was used at LULI on experiments that determined the x-ray source size from spectral line broadening on one IP positioned behind the Rowland circle. TCS has recorded numerous backlighter spectra at EP for point projection radiography and for source size measurements. Hard x-ray source size can be determined from the source broadening of both K shell emission lines and from K absorption edges in the bremsstrahlung continuum, the latter being a new way to measure the spatial extent of the hard x-ray bremsstrahlung continuum.     

Ultrahigh resolution soft x-ray emission spectrometer at BL07LSU in SPring-8

An extremely high resolution flat field type slit less soft x-ray emission spectrometer has been designed and constructed for the long undulator beamline BL07LSU in SPring-8. By optimizing the ruling parameters of two cylindrical gratings, a high energy resolution ΔE < 100 meV and/or an E∕ΔE ~ 10 000 are expected for the energy range of 350 eV - 750 eV taking into account the broadening by the spatial resolution (25 μm) of a CCD detector. A coma-free operation mode proposed by Strocov et al., is also applied to eliminate both defocus and coma aberrations. The spectrometer demonstrated experimentally that E/ΔE = 10 050 and 8046 for N 1s (402.1 eV) and Mn 2p (641.8 eV) edges, respectively.     

Design and performance of a curved-crystal x-ray emission spectrometer

A curved-crystal x-ray emission spectrometer has been designed and built to measure 2-5 keV x-ray fluorescence resulting from a core-level excitation of gas phase species. The spectrometer can rotate 180 degrees, allowing detection of emitted x rays with variable polarization angles, and is capable of collecting spectra over a wide energy range (20 eV wide with 0.5 eV resolution at the Cl K edge) simultaneously. In addition, the entire experimental chamber can be rotated about the incident-radiation axis by nearly 360 degrees while maintaining vacuum, permitting measurements of angular distributions of emitted x rays.     

A new type of x-ray absorption spectrometer

A single-crystal spectrometer for x-ray absorption and emission with a microfocus x-ray source has been set up so that the divergent rays from the source can be analyzed over a wide range of Bragg angles with a high degree of resolution. The covered energy interval depends upon the exposed width of the crystal and the geometrical setup. Preliminary experiments are presented to show the effectiveness of the spectrometer.     

Dynamic Hohlraums as x-ray sources in high-energy density science

The first demonstration of laser driven dynamic Hohlraums (LDDH) as a spectrally smooth backlighter source for opacity and temperature measurements through absorption spectrometry of materials in local thermodynamic equilibrium at temperatures >150 eV has been made. This is a crucial temperature regime for future astrophysics and ignition fusion experiments at the nearly completed National Ignition Facility (NIF) [E. I. Moses and C. R. Wuest, Fusion Sci. Technol. 47, 314 (2005)] at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The new backlighter consists of a LDDH filled with either krypton or argon that implodes to create an x-ray flash. The properties of this x-ray flash have been measured in experiments at the Omega laser [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics in Rochester, New York, satisfying all requirements imposed by future experiments: (1) the emission spectrum extends to at least 5.5 keV, well above the maximum x-ray energy ( approximately 3.5 keV) obtained from the previously "best" opacity backlighters (uranium M-shell emission backlighters); (2) the spectrum is smooth and featureless (intensity variation <6% rms), allowing absorption spectrometry through experimental samples; (3) the emission source size is sufficiently small (<50 microm) for projection backlighting through future samples; (4) the emission is bright enough (and twice as bright as imploding hydrogen-filled capsules) for gated spectrometer measurements; (5) the emission duration is optimized ( approximately 100 ps) for the current and future generations of spectrometers; and (6) by using only a small number of beams with limited energy and symmetry for the backlighter (10 out of 60 beams in the Omega experiments), the majority of laser beams are left available for heating sample materials to >150 eV.