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The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory was the first hard X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) to operate as a user facility. After five years of operation, LCLS is now a mature FEL user facility. Our personal views about opportunities and challenges inherent to these unique light sources are discussed.
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is the world’s first x-ray free electron laser. It is a scientific user facility operated by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, at Stanford, for the U.S. Department of Energy. As beam time at LCLS is extremely valuable and limited, experimental efficiency—getting the most high quality data in the least time—is critical. Our overall project employs cognitive engineering methodologies with the goal of improving experimental efficiency and increasing scientific productivity at LCLS by refining experimental interfaces and workflows, simplifying tasks, reducing errors, and improving operator safety and stress. Here, in this study, we describe a multi-agent, multi-scale computational cognitive interaction model of instrument operations at LCLS. Our model simulates the aspects of human cognition at multiple cognitive and temporal scales, ranging from seconds to hours, and among agents playing multiple roles, including instrument operator, real time data analyst, and experiment manager. The model can roughly predict impacts stemming from proposed changes to operational interfaces and workflows. Example results demonstrate the model’s potential in guiding modifications to improve operational efficiency. We discuss the implications of our effort for cognitive engineering in complex experimental settings and outline future directions for research. The model is open source, and the videos of the supplementary material provide extensive detail.
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is a free electron laser facility in construction at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. It is designed to operate in the wavelength range 0.15-1.5 nanometers. At the time of this conference, civil construction of new tunnels and buildings is complete, the necessary modifications to the SLAC linac are complete, and the undulator system and x-ray optics/diagnostics are being installed. The electron gun, 135 MeV injector linac and 250 MeV bunch compressor were commissioned in 2007. Accelerator commissioning activities are presently devoted to the achievement of performance goals for the completed 14 GeV linac.
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) has significantly impacted the field of biology by providing advanced capabilities for probing the structure and dynamics of biological molecules with high precision. The ultrashort coherent X-ray pulses from the LCLS have enabled ultrafast, time-resolved, serial femtosecond crystallography that is inaccessible at conventional synchrotron light sources. Since the facility's founding, scientists have captured detailed insights into biological processes at atomic resolution and fundamental timescales. The ability to observe these processes in real time and under conditions closely resembling their natural state is transforming our approach to studying biochemical mechanisms and developing new medical and energy applications. This work recounts some of the history of the LCLS, advances in biological research enabled by the LCLS, key biological areas that have been impacted and how the LCLS has helped to unravel complex biological phenomena in these fields.
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is required to deliver a high quality electron beam for producing coherent X-rays. As a result, high resolution beam position monitoring is required. The Beam Position Monitor (BPM) digitizer acquires analog signals from the beam line and digitizes them to obtain beam position data. Although Matlab is currently being used to test the BPM digitizer?s functions and capability, the Controls Department at SLAC prefers to use Experimental Physics and Industrial Control Systems (EPICS). This paper discusses the transition of providing similar as well as enhanced functionalities, than those offered by Matlab, to test the digitizer. Altogether, the improved test stand development system can perform mathematical and statistical calculations with the waveform signals acquired from the digitizer and compute the fast Fourier transform (FFT) of the signals. Finally, logging of meaningful data into files has been added.
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) started user commissioning in October of 2009, producing Free Electron Laser (FEL) radiation between 800 eV and 8 keV [1]. The fundamental wavelength of the FEL dominates radiation in the beamlines, but the beam also produces nonnegligible levels of radiation at higher harmonics. The harmonics may be desirable as a source of harder X-rays, but may also contribute backgrounds to user experiments. In this paper we present preliminary measurements of the second and third harmonic content in the FEL. We also measure the photon energy cutoff of the soft X-ray mirrors to determine the extent to which higher harmonics reach the experimental stations. We present preliminary second and third harmonic measurements for LCLS. At low energies (below 1 keV fundamental) we measure less than 0.1% second harmonic content. The second harmonic will be present in the soft X-ray beam line for fundamental photon energies below approximately 1.1 keV. At low and high energies, we measure third harmonic content ranging from 0.5% to 3%, which is consistent with expectations. For both second and third harmonics, experimental work is ongoing. More rigorous analysis of the data will be completed soon.
The linac coherent light source (LCLS), an x-ray free-electron laser project presently under construction at SLAC, uses a 2.856 GHz rf photocathode gun with a copper cathode for its electron source. While the copper cathode is performing well for the LCLS project, a cathode material with higher quantum efficiency would reduce the drive laser requirements and allow a greater range of operating conditions. Therefore a robust CsBr/Cu photocathode with greater than 50 times the quantum yield at 257 nm relative to the present LCLS copper cathode has been investigated. Preliminary experiments using a dedicated electron source development test stand at SLAC/SSRL are encouraging and are presented in this paper.
The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) has become the first ever operational hard X-ray Free Electron Laser in 2009. It will operate as a user facility capable of delivering unique research opportunities in multiple fields of science. The LCLS and the LCLS Ultrafast Science Instruments (LUSI) construction projects are developing instruments designed to make full use of the capabilities afforded by the LCLS beam. One such instrument is being designed to utilize the LCLS coherent beam to image with high resolution any sub-micron object. This instrument is called the Coherent X-ray Imaging (CXI) instrument. This instrument will provide a flexible optical system capable of tailoring key beam parameters for the users. A suite of shot-to-shot diagnostics will also be provided to characterize the beam on every pulse. The provided instrumentation will include multi-purpose sample environments, sample delivery and a custom detector capable of collecting 2D data at 120 Hz. In this article, the LCLS will be briefly introduced along with the technique of Coherent X-ray Diffractive Imaging (CXDI). A few examples of scientific opportunities using the CXI instrument will be described. Finally, the conceptual layout of the instrument will be presented along with a description of the key requirements for the overall system and specific devices required.
Multiplexing of the Linac Coherent Light Source beam was demonstrated for hard X-rays by spectral division using a near-perfect diamond thin-crystal monochromator operating in the Bragg geometry. The wavefront and coherence properties of both the reflected and transmitted beams were well preserved, thus allowing simultaneous measurements at two separate instruments. In this report, the structure determination of a prototypical protein was performed using serial femtosecond crystallography simultaneously with a femtosecond time-resolved XANES studies of photoexcited spin transition dynamics in an iron spin-crossover system. The results of both experiments using the multiplexed beams are similar to those obtained separately, using a dedicated beam, with no significant differences in quality.
Recent experiments performed at the Matter in Extreme Conditions end station (MEC) of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) have demonstrated the first spectrally resolved measurements of plasmons from isochorically heated aluminum. The experiments have been performed using a seeded 8-keV x-ray laser beam as a pump and probe to both volumetrically heat and scatter x-rays from aluminum. Collective x-ray Thomson scattering spectra show a well-resolved plasmon feature that is down-shifted in energy by 19 eV. In addition, Mbar shock pressures from laser-compressed aluminum foils using Velocity Interferometer System for Any Reflector (VISAR) have been measured. The combination of experiments fully demonstrates the possibility to perform warm dense matter studies at the LCLS with unprecedented accuracy and precision.
Since 2009, the Linac Coherent Light Source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory produces ultra-fast, ultra-bright X-ray pulses with which atoms and molecules can be visualized as they move, hence revealing the mechanics of chemistry and revolutionizing the research in fields ranging from biology to energy sciences. LCLS-II is a sister vicinal facility with new features that will be soon constructed to address the surging demand of FEL beams. In this paper we summarize the radiation protection scheme for LCLS-II and we describe diverse challenges and the adopted solutions. In particular we present the access modes of LCLS-II that allow simultaneous operation with LCLS. Monte Carlo simulations have been used to design beam components like stoppers and to define the thickness of walls. Also, by carefully analyzing the contributors to the residual dose, the shielding of the main dumps has been optimized to meet engineering constraints while allowing access after short cool down.
We present the first spectrally resolved measurements of x-rays scattered from cryogenic hydrogen jets in the single photon counting limit. The 120 Hz capabilities of the LCLS, together with a novel hydrogen jet design [J. B. Kim et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. (these proceedings)], allow for the ability to record a near background free spectrum. Such high-dynamic-range x-ray scattering measurements enable a platform to study ultra-fast, laser-driven, heating dynamics of hydrogen plasmas. This measurement has been achieved using two highly annealed pyrolytic graphite crystal spectrometers to spectrally resolve 5.5 keV x-rays elastically and inelastically scattered from cryogenic hydrogen and focused on Cornell-SLAC pixel array detectors [S. Herrmann et al., Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 718, 550 (2013)].
Abstract not provided
The chemRIXS instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) offers new opportunities for studying solution-phase systems with time-resolved soft X-ray spectroscopic methods such as resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) using the recently commissioned high-repetition-rate LCLS-II X-ray free electron laser. The orders-of-magnitude X-ray flux improvement provided by the superconducting accelerator, combined with corresponding advances in the optical laser system and the liquid jet recirculation system, enables studies on dilute systems with high signal-to-noise compared to what was possible with the LCLS-I copper accelerator. These capabilities open up time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy and RIXS to entirely new classes of samples, as well as enabling the development of new soft X-ray spectroscopic methods on liquid samples. An overview of the beamline components and the first LCLS-II commissioning results are presented.
The electron pulses generated by the Linac Coherent Light Source at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory occur on the order of tens of femtoseconds and cannot be directly measured by conventional means. The length of the pulses can instead be reconstructed by measuring the spectrum of optical transition radiation emitted by the electrons as they move toward a conducting foil. Because the emitted radiation occurs in the mid-infrared from 0.6 to 30 microns a novel optical layout is required. Using a helium-neon laser with wavelength 633 nm, a series of gold-coated off-axis parabolic mirrors were positioned to direct a beam through a zinc selenide prism and to a focus at a CCD camera for imaging. Constructing this layout revealed a number of novel techniques for reducing the aberrations introduced into the system by the off—axis parabolic mirrors. The beam had a recorded radius of less than a millimeter at its final focus on the CCD imager. This preliminary setup serves as a model for the spectrometer that will ultimately measure the LCLS electron pulse duration.
Take an animated tour of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). Follow the laser pulse from the injector gun all the way through to the Far Experimental Hall.
Experiments using a THz pump and an X-ray probe at an X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) facility like the Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS II) require frequency-tunable (3 to 20 THz), narrow bandwidth (~10%), carrier-envelope-phase-stable THz pulses that produce high fields (>1 MV cm –1 ) at the repetition rate of the X-rays and are well synchronized with them. Herein, a two-bunch scheme to generate THz radiation at LCLS II is studied: the first bunch produces THz radiation in an electromagnet wiggler immediately following the LCLS II undulator that produces X-rays from the second bunch. The initial time delay between the two bunches is optimized to compensate for the path difference in THz transport. The two-bunch beam dynamics, the THz wiggler and radiation are described, as well as the transport system bringing the THz pulses from the wiggler to the experimental hall.