Development of MeV Ultrafast Electron Scattering Instruments at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Abstract

Ultrafast electron diffraction from non-equilibrium phonons in femtosecond laser heated Au films Applied Physics Letters 108, 041909 (2016); 10.1063/1.4940981 Experimental demonstration of high quality MeV ultrafast electron diffraction Review of Scientific Instruments 80, 083303 (2009); 10.1063/1.3194047 Ultrafast electron diffraction optimized for studying structural dynamics in thin films and monolayers Structural Dynamics 3, 034302 (2016); 10.1063/1.4949538 Single-shot mega-electronvolt ultrafast electron diffraction for structure dynamic studies of warm dense matter Review of Scientific Instruments 87, 11D810 (2016); 10.1063/1.4960070 Ultrafast time-resolved electron diffraction with megavolt electron beams Ultrafast electron probes are powerful tools, complementary to x-ray free-electron lasers, used to study structural dynamics in material, chemical, and biological sciences. High brightness, relativistic electron beams with femtosecond pulse duration can resolve details of the dynamic processes on atomic time and length scales. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory recently launched the Ultrafast Electron Diffraction (UED) and microscopy Initiative aiming at developing the next generation ultrafast electron scattering instruments. As the first stage of the Initiative, a mega-electron-volt (MeV) UED system has been constructed and commissioned to serve ultrafast science experiments and instrumentation development. The system operates at 120-Hz repetition rate with outstanding performance. In this paper, we report on the SLAC MeV UED system and its performance, including the reciprocal space resolution, temporal resolution, and machine stability. C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx.