The monochromator beamline at FLASH: performance, capabilities and upgrade plans

TL;DR

The paper discusses the performance, capabilities, and upgrade plans of the first XUV monochromator beamline at FLASH, highlighting its versatility for various experiments with a free electron laser source.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the beamline's current performance and details planned upgrades to enhance its experimental versatility.

Findings

Operates as the first XUV monochromator beamline on a FEL source.

Supports high-resolution spectroscopy, pump-probe, and filtering experiments.

Plans for upgrades to improve flexibility and performance.

Abstract

The monochromator beamline at the FLASH facility at DESY is the worldwide first XUV monochromator beamline operational on a free electron laser (FEL)source. Being a single-user machine, FLASH demands a high flexibility of the instrumentation to fulfil the needs of diverse experiments performed by a multidisciplinary user community. Thus, the beamline has not only been used for high-resolution spectroscopy that it was originally designed for, but also for pump-probe experiments controlling the temporal-spectral properties at moderate resolution, and as a filter for high harmonics of the FEL at very low resolution. The present performance and capabilities of the beamline are discussed with emphasis on particularities arising from the nature of the FEL source, and current developments are presented aiming to enhance its capabilities for accommodating a wide variety of experiments.