Single-shot timing measurement of extreme-ultraviolet free-electron laser pulses

Abstract

Arrival time fluctuations of extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) pulses from the free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH) are measured single-pulse resolved at the experimental end-station. To this end, they are non-collinearly superimposed in space and time with visible femtosecond laser pulses on a GaAs substrate. The EUV irradiation induces changes of the reflectivity for the visible pulse. The temporal delay between the two light pulses is directly encoded in the spatial position of the reflectivity change which is captured with a CCD camera. For each single shot, the relative EUV/visible arrival-time can be measured with about 40 fs rms accuracy. The method constitutes a novel route for an improvement of future pump–probe experiments at short-wavelength free-electron lasers (FELs) by a pulse-wise correction with simultaneously measured arrival times of individual EUV pulses.