X-ray pulses on demand from Electron Storage Rings

HZB physicists recently devised a new method to pick single x-ray pulses out of the pulse trains usually emitted from synchrotron radiation facilities. The technique is very useful to support studies of electronic properties of quantum materials and superconductors and paves the way for future synchrotron facilities with variable pulse lengths.

Scientists from HZB’s Institute for Methods and Instrumentation in Synchrotron Radiation Research and the Accelerator Department have now jointly solved the gordic knot as they published in the renowned journal Nature Communications. Their novel method is capable of picking single pulses out of a conventional pulse train as usually emitted from Synchrotron facilities. They managed to apply this for the first time to time-of-flight electron spectroscopy based on modern instruments as developed within a joint Lab with Uppsala University, Sweden.

The pulse picking technique is based on a quasi resonant magnetic excitation of transverse oscillations in one specific relativistic electron bunch that – like all others – generates a radiation cone within an undulator. The selective excitation leads to an enlargement of the radiation cone. Employing  a detour (“bump”)  in the electron beam path, the regular radiation and the radiation from the excited electrons can be easily separated and only pulses from the latter arrive – once per revolution - at the experiment. Thus, the arrival time of the pulses is now perfectly accommodated for modern high resolution time-of-flight spectrometers. 

Users will be able to examine band structures with higher precision

“The development of the Pulse Picking by Resonant Excitation (PPRE) was science driven by our user community working with single bunch techniques. They demand more beamtime to improve studies on e.g. graphene, topological insulators and other “hot topics” in material science like the current debates about high Tc-Superconductors, magnetic ordering phenomena and catalytic surface effects for energy storage. Moreover, with pulse picking techniques at hand, we are now well prepared for our future light source with variable pulse lengths: BESSY-VSR, where users will appreciate pulse selection on demand to readily switch from high brightness to ultrashort pulses according to their individual needs” says Karsten Holldack, corresponding author of the paper.

First tests successful
The researchers have proven the workability of their method with ARTOF-time-of-flight spectrometers at different undulators and beamlines as well as in BESSY II’s regular user mode. “Here we could certainly benefit from long year experiences with emittance manipulation”, says Dr. P. Kuske acting as head of the accelerator part of the team. Thanks to accelerator developments in the past, we are capable of even picking ultrashort pulses out of the bunch trains in low-alpha operation, a special operation mode of BESSY II.  At last, the users can, already right now, individually switch - within minutes – between high static flux and the single pulse without touching any settings at their instruments and the sample.

The work has now been published in Nature Communications: Single Bunch X-ray Pulses on Demand from a Multibunch Synchrotron Radiation Source, K. Holldack et al. Doi:  10.1038/ncomms5010