[en] The emergence of Free Electron Lasers (FEL) as a fourth generation of light sources is a breakthrough. FELs operating in the X-ray range (XFEL) allow one to carry out completely new experiments that probably most of the natural sciences would benefit. Self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) is the baseline FEL operation mode: the radiation pulse starts as a spontaneous emission from the electron bunch and is being amplified during an FEL process until it reaches saturation. The SASE FEL radiation usually has poor properties in terms of a spectral bandwidth or, on the other side, longitudinal coherence. Self-seeding is a promising approach to narrow the SASE bandwidth of XFELs significantly in order to produce nearly transformlimited pulses. It is achieved by the radiation pulse monochromatization in the middle of an FEL amplification process. Following the successful demonstration of the self-seeding setup in the hard X-ray range at the LCLS, there is a need for a self-seeding extension into the soft X-ray range. Here a numerical method to simulate the soft X-ray self seeding (SXRSS) monochromator performance is presented. It allows one to perform start-to-end self-seeded FEL simulations along with (in our case) GENESIS simulation code. Based on this method, the performance of the LCLS self-seeded operation was simulated showing a good agreement with an experiment. Also the SXRSS monochromator design developed in SLAC was adapted for the SASE3 type undulator beamline at the European XFEL. The optical system was studied using Gaussian beam optics, wave optics propagation method and ray tracing to evaluate the performance of the monochromator itself. Wave optics analysis takes into account the actual beam wavefront of the radiation from the coherent FEL source, third order aberrations and height errors from each optical element. The monochromator design is based on a toroidal VLS grating working at a fixed incidence angle mounting without both entrance and exit slits. It is optimized for the spectral range of 300-1200 eV providing resolving power above 7000. The proposed monochromator is composed of three mirrors and the grating. Start-to-end simulation as a case study of the selfseeded European XFEL performance with a proposed SXRSS monochromator is presented. It shows that the laser pulse power reaches a TW-level with its spectral density about eighty times higher than that of the conventional SASE pulse at saturation.

[en] The (spectral) brightness for partially transverse coherent sources as Synchrotron Radiation (SR) and Free-Electron Laser (FEL) sources can be defined as the maximum of the Wigner distribution. Then, the brightness includes information on both coherence and wavefront characteristics of the radiation field. For undulator sources, it is customary to approximate the single-electron electric field at resonance with a Gaussian beam, leading to great simplifications. Attempts to account for the modified spatial and angular profile of the undulator radiation in the presence of detuning due to energy spread currently build on the simplified brightness expression derived under the assumption of Gaussian beams. The influence of energy spread on undulator radiation properties is becoming important in view of diffraction-limited rings with ultralow emittance coming on-line. Here we discuss the effects of energy spread on the brightness of undulator radiation at resonance, as well as relevant relations with coherence properties.

[en] XFELs provide X-ray pulses with unprecedented peak brightness and ultrashort duration. They are usually driven by planar undulators, meaning that the output radiation is linearly polarized. For many experimental applications, however, polarization control is critical: besides the ability to produce linearly polarized radiation, one often needs the possibility of generating circularly polarized radiation with a high, stable degree of polarization. This may be achieved by using a first part of the XFEL undulator to produce bunching and then, by propagating the the bunched beam through an ''afterburner'' - a short undulator with tunable polarization, where only limited gain takes place. One of the issues that one needs to consider in this case is the separation of the circularly polarized radiation obtained in the radiator from the linearly polarized background produced in the first part of the FEL. In this article we review several methods to do so, including the inverse tapering technique. In particular, we use the Genesis FEL code to simulate a case study pertaining to the SASE3 FEL line at the European XFEL with up-to-date parameters and we confirm that a high degree of circular polarization is expected. Moreover, we propose to further improve the effectiveness of the inverse tapering technique either via angular separation of the linearly polarized radiation or strongly defocusing it at the sample position. In this way we exploit the unique flexibility of the European XFEL from both the electron beam and the photon beam optics side.

[en] Output characteristics of the European XFEL have been previously studied assuming an operation point at 5 kA peak current. In this paper we explore the possibility to go well beyond such nominal peak current level. In order to illustrate the potential of the European XFEL accelerator complex we consider a bunch with 0.25 nC charge, compressed up to a peak current of 45 kA. An advantage of operating at such high peak current is the increase of the X-ray output peak power without any modification to the baseline design. Based on start-to-end simulations, we demonstrate that such high peak current, combined with undulator tapering, allows one to achieve up to a 100-fold increase in a peak power in the conventional SASE regime, compared to the nominal mode of operation. In particular, we find that 10 TW-power level, femtosecond x-ray pulses can be generated in the photon energy range between 3 keV and 5 keV, which is optimal for single biomolecule imaging. Our simulations are based on the exploitation of all the 21 cells foreseen for the SASE3 undulator beamline, and indicate that one can achieve diffraction to the desired resolution with 15 mJ (corresponding to about 3.10¹³ photons) in pulses of about 3 fs, in the case of a 100 nm focus at the photon energy of 3.5 keV.

[en] The purified SASE (pSASE) undulator configuration recently proposed at SLAC promises an increase in the output spectral density of XFELs. In this article we study a straightforward implementation of this configuration for the soft x-ray beamline at the European XFEL. A few undulator cells, resonant at a subharmonic of the FEL radiation, are used in the middle of the exponential regime to amplify the radiation, while simultaneously reducing the FEL bandwidth. Based on start-to-end simulations, we show that with the proposed configuration the spectral density in the photon energy range between 1.3 keV and 3 keV can be enhanced of an order of magnitude compared to the baseline mode of operation. This option can be implemented into the tunable-gap SASE3 baseline undulator without additional hardware, and it is complementary to the self-seeding option with grating monochromator proposed for the same undulator line, which can cover the photon energy range between about 0.26 keV and 1 keV.

[en] Self-seeding is a promising approach to significantly narrow the SASE bandwidth of XFELs to produce nearly transform-limited pulses. The implementation of this method in the soft X-ray wavelength range necessarily involves gratings as dispersive elements. We study a very compact self-seeding scheme with a grating monochromator originally designed at SLAC, which can be straightforwardly installed in the SASE3 type undulator beamline at the European XFEL. The monochromator design is based on a toroidal VLS grating working at a fixed incidence angle mounting without entrance slit. It covers the spectral range from 300 eV to 1000 eV. The optical system was studied using wave optics method (in comparison with ray tracing) to evaluate the performance of the self-seeding scheme. Our wave optics analysis takes into account the actual beam wavefront of the radiation from the coherent FEL source, third order aberrations, and errors from each optical element. Wave optics is the only method available, in combination with FEL simulations, for the design of a self-seeding monochromator without exit slit. We show that, without exit slit, the self-seeding scheme is distinguished by the much needed experimental simplicity, and can practically give the same resolving power (about 7000) as with an exit slit. Wave optics is also naturally applicable to calculations of the self-seeding scheme efficiency, which include the monochromator transmittance and the effect of the mismatching between seed beam and electron beam. Simulations show that the FEL power reaches 1 TW and that the spectral density for a TW pulse is about two orders of magnitude higher than that for the SASE pulse at saturation.

[en] We discuss the use of self-seeding schemes with wake monochromators to produce TW power, fully coherent pulses for applications at the dedicated bio-imaging beamline at the European X-ray FEL, a concept for an upgrade of the facility beyond the baseline previously proposed by the authors. We exploit the asymmetric and symmetric Bragg and Laue reflections (sigma polarization) in diamond crystal. Optimization of the bio-imaging beamline is performed with extensive start-to-end simulations, which also take into account effects such as the spatio-temporal coupling caused by the wake monochromator. The spatial shift is maximal in the range for small Bragg angles. A geometry with Bragg angles close to π/2 would be a more advantageous option from this viewpoint, albeit with decrease of the spectral tunability. We show that it will be possible to cover the photon energy range from 3 keV to 13 keV by using four different planes of the same crystal with one rotational degree of freedom.

[en] We demonstrate that the output radiation characteristics of the European XFEL sources at nominal operation point can be easily made significantly better than what is currently reported in the TDRs of scientific instruments and X-ray optics. In fact, the output SASE characteristics of the baseline European XFEL have been previously optimized assuming uniform undulators at a nominal operating point of 5 kA peak current, without considering the potential of undulator tapering in the SASE regime. In order to illustrate this point, we analyze the case of an electron bunch with nominal parameters. Based on start-to-end simulations, we demonstrate that nonlinear undulator tapering allows one to achieve up to a tenfold increase in peak power and photon spectral density in the conventional SASE regime, without modification to the baseline design. The FEL code Genesis has been extensively used for these studies. In order to increase our confidence in simulation results, we cross-checked outcomes by reproducing simulations in the deep nonlinear SASE regime with tapered undulator using the code ALICE.

[en] X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFELs) have been proven to generate short and powerful radiation pulses allowing for a wide class of novel experiments. If an XFEL facility supports the generation of two X-ray pulses with different wavelengths and controllable delay, the range of possible experiments is broadened even further to include X-ray-pump/X-ray-probe applications. In this work we discuss the possibility of applying a simple and cost-effective method for producing two-color pulses at the SASE3 soft X-ray beamline of the European XFEL. The technique is based on the installation of a magnetic chicane in the baseline undulator and can be accomplished in several steps. We discuss the scientific interest of this upgrade for the Small Quantum Systems (SQS) instrument, in connection with the high-repetition rate of the European XFEL, and we provide start-to-end simulations up to the radiation focus on the sample, proving the feasibility of our concept.

[en] The output SASE characteristics of the baseline European XFEL, recently used in the TDRs of scientific instruments and X-ray optics, have been previously optimized assuming uniform undulators without considering the potential of undulator tapering in the SASE regime. Here we demonstrate that the performance of European XFEL sources can be significantly improved without additional hardware. The procedure simply consists in the optimization of the undulator gap configuration for each X-ray beamline. Here we provide a comprehensive description of the soft X-ray photon beam properties as a function of wavelength and bunch charge. Based on nominal parameters for the electron beam, we demonstrate that undulator tapering allows one to achieve up to a tenfold increase in peak power and photon spectral density in the conventional SASE regime. We illustrate this fact for the SASE3 beamline. The FEL code Genesis has been extensively used for these studies. Based on these findings we suggest that the requirements for the SASE3 instrument (SCS, SQS) and for the SASE3 beam transport system be updated.