The Gas Attenuator of FLASH at DESY

Abstract

FLASH (Free electron LASer at Hamburg) as a part of the Deutsches Elektronen Synchroton DESY is the first Free Electron Laser (FEL) user facility for VUV and soft X‐ray coherent light experiments. The SASE (Self Amplification by Stimulated Emission) process generates ultra short coherent radiation pulses on the femtosecond time scale with peak powers in the GW range. Several experiments need reliable means to reduce the FEL intensity over many orders of magnitude without changing the photon beam characteristics. Since a reduction of the FEL intensity by variation of machine parameters is not appropriate, a windowless gas‐filled cell in combination with differential pumping units is used for attenuating the FEL radiation. This attenuator is placed in the beamline in outside the experimental hall. The total length of the gas cell is 15 m and the maximum gas pressure, which can be handled by the differential pumping units, is about 0.1 mbar. The attenuation range of Nitrogen covers at least 5 orders of magnitude in the spectral range of 19 to 120 nm due to its large absorption cross section. Between 19 and 9 nm and for shorter wavelengths Xenon and Krypton can be used, respectively.