Peer-Review Publications

The linear polarization of bremsstrahlung radiation emitted in collisions of spin‐polarized and unpolarized electrons with carbon and gold targets has been measured for an incident kinetic energy of 100 keV. We present preliminary results for the degree of linear polarization for incident unpolarized electrons as a function of bremsstrahlung photon energy.

The future international accelerator Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) encompasses 4 scientific pillars containing at this time 14 approved technical proposals worked out by more than 2000 scientists from all over the world. They offer a wide range of new and challenging opportunities for atomic physics research in the realm of highly‐charged heavy ions and exotic nuclei. As one of the backbones of the Atomic, Plasma Physics and Applications (APPA) pillar, the Stored Particle Atomic Physics Research Collaboration (SPARC) has organized tasks and activities in various working groups for which we will present a concise survey on their current status.

When a laser pulse hits a solid surface with relativistic intensities, XUV attosecond pulses are generated in the reflected light. We present an experimental and theoretical study of the temporal properties of attosecond pulse trains in this regime. The recorded harmonic spectra show distinct fine structures which can be explained by a varying temporal pulse spacing that can be controlled by the laser contrast. The pulse spacing is directly related to the cycle-averaged motion of the reflecting surface. Thus the harmonic spectrum contains information on the relativistic plasma dynamics.

We present a plasma mirror configuration that improves the temporal pulse contrast of femtosecond terawatt laser pulses by a factor of thousand using a single antireflection coated glass target. The device provides ultra-high contrast for experiments with a maximum repetition rate of 10 Hz. A third-order cross-correlator has been used to measure the temporal pulse contrast for several different plasma mirror targets. It is shown that the ASE can be suppressed to a level of 10^(−11.) A comparison between a triggered and an untriggered plasma mirror reveals differences in the intensity distribution of the focused beam. The triggered plasma mirror produces a slightly larger focus due to the expansion of the triggered plasma mirror at -3 ps before the main pulse. We propose a cost-effective AR-coated and a blank glass target to reduce the costs of the consumable target material. High-harmonic radiation on solid surfaces has been generated with different plasma mirror targets to demonstrate the high laser contrast.

In this paper a scheme is proposed for measuring nuclear-spin-dependent parity-nonconservation effects in highly charged ions. The idea is to employ circularly polarized laser light for inducing the transition between the level (1s2s)^1S_0 and the hyperfine sublevels of (1s2s)^3S_1 in He-like ions with nonzero nuclear spin. We argue that an interference between the allowed magnetic dipole M1 and the parity-violating electric dipole E1 decay channel leads to an observable asymmetry of order 10^(-7) in the transition cross section, in the atomic range 28 ⩽ Z ⩽ 35. Experimental requirements for asymmetry measurements are discussed in the case of He-like (34)_Se^(77).

Due to electron-nucleus weak interaction, atomic bound states with different parities turn out to be mixed. We discuss a prospective method for measuring the mixing parameter between the nearly degenerate metastable states 1s_(1/2) 2s_(1/2):J=0 and 1s_(1/2) 2p_(1/2):J=0 in heliumlike uranium. Our analysis is based on the polarization properties of the photons emitted in the two-photon decays of such states.

The population of magnetic sublevels in hydrogen-like uranium ions has been investigated in relativistic ion–atom collisions by observing the subsequent X-ray emission. Using the gas target at the experimental storage ring facility we observed the angular emission of Lyman-α radiation from hydrogen-like uranium ions. The alignment parameter for three different interaction energies was measured and found to agree well with theory. In addition, the use of different gas targets allowed for the electron-impact excitation process to be observed.

We demonstrate that an ultrashort-pulse laser-driven x-ray diode can be used for time-resolved experiments on a picosecond timescale. Hence, acoustical phonons in germanium are observed after ultrashort laser-excitation and the results are compared with calculations according to a microphysical model. We also show the advantages of this kind of picosecond x-ray source compared to other sources on the basis of its properties.

We present simple and compact (1.5 m x 0.5 m footprint) post-compression of a state-of-the-art fiber chirped pulse amplification system. By using two stage nonlinear compression in noble gas filled hollow core fibers we shorten 1 mJ, 480 fs, 50 kHz pulses. The first stage is a 53 cm long, 200 µm inner diameter fiber filled with xenon with subsequent compression in a chirped mirror compressor. A 20 cm, 200 µm inner diameter fiber filled with argon further broadens the spectrum in a second stage and compression is achieved with another set of chirped mirrors. The average power is 24.5 W / 19 W after the first / second stage, respectively. Compression to 35 fs is achieved. Numerical simulations, agreeing well with experimental data, yield a peak power of 5.7 GW at a pulse energy of 380 µJ making this an interesting source for high harmonic generation at high repetition rate and average power.

We report on the design and experimental investigation of a preferential gain photonic-crystal fiber with a mode-field diameter of 47 µm. This few-mode fiber design confines the doping of Ytterbium-ions just to the center of the core and, therefore, promotes fundamental mode operation. In a chirped-pulse amplification system we extracted up to 303 W of average power from this fiber with a measured M^2 value of 1.4.

We describe the optical pump–probe laser system at the XUV free-electron laser FLASH at DESY. A growing interest in optical laser pulses combined with the free-electron laser (FEL) beam for time-resolved experiments raise high demands on the stability of operation and knowledge on the status of synchronization between the XUV and optical pulses. In this publication we describe this system, the characterization of the optical pulses, synchronization and timing schemes as well as beamlines that transport beam to experimental stations.

Experimental results in laser acceleration of protons and ions and theoretical predictions that the currently achieved energies might be raised by factors 5 - 10 in the next few years have stimulated research exploring this new technology for oncology as a compact alternative to conventional synchrotron based accelerator technology. The emphasis of this paper is on collection and focusing of the laser produced particles by using simulation data from a specific laser acceleration model. We present a scaling law for the “chromatic emittance” of the collector - here assumed as a solenoid lens - and apply it to the particle energy and angular spectra of the simulation output. For a 10 Hz laser system we find that particle collection by a solenoid magnet well satisfies requirements of intensity and beam quality as needed for depth scanning irradiation. This includes a sufficiently large safety margin for intensity, whereas a scheme without collection - by using mere aperture collimation - hardly reaches the needed intensities.

In an article “Lorentz violation in high-energy ions” by S. Devasia published in this Journal [EPJ C 69, 343 (2010)], our recent Doppler shift experiments on fast ion beams are reanalyzed. Contrary to our analysis, Devasia concludes that our results provide an “indication of Lorentz violation”. We argue that this conclusion is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of our experimental scheme and reiterate that our results are in excellent agreement with Special Relativity.

Fourth-generation X-ray light sources are being developed to deliver laser-like X-ray pulses at intensities and/or repetition rates that are beyond the reach of table-top devices. An important class of experiments at these new facilities comprises pump–probe experiments, which are designed to investigate chemical reactions and processes occurring on the molecular or even atomic level, and on the timescale of a few femtoseconds. Good progress has been made towards the generation of ultrashort X-ray pulses (for example, at FLASH or LCLS), but experiments suffer from the intrinsic timing jitter between the X-ray pulses and external laser sources3. In this Letter, we present a new approach that provides few-femtosecond temporal resolution. Our method uses coherent terahertz radiation generated at the end of the X-ray undulator by the same electron bunch that emits the X-ray pulse. It can therefore be applied at any advanced light source working with ultrashort electron bunches and undulators.

Ytterbium-doped large-pitch fibers with very large mode areas are investigated in a high-power fiber amplifier configuration. An average output power of 294 W is demonstrated, while maintaining robust single-mode operation with a mode field diameter of 62 µm. Compared to previous active large-mode area designs, the threshold of mode instabilities is increased by a factor of about 3.

The recent demonstration of rare-earth-doped fiber lasers with a continuous-wave output power approaching the 10-kW level with diffraction-limited beam quality proves that fiber lasers constitute a scalable solid-state laser concept in terms of average power. In order to generate high peak power pulses from a fiber several fundamental limitations have to be overcome. This can be achieved by novel experimental strategies and fiber designs that offer an enormous potential towards ultrafast laser systems combining high average powers (> kW) and high peak power (> GW). In this paper the challenges, achievements and perspectives of ultrashort pulse generation and amplification in fibers are reviewed. This kind of laser system will have a tremendous impact on strong-field physics experiments, such as the generation of coherent light by high-harmonic generation. So far, applications in the interesting EUV spectral range suffer from the very low photon count leading to nonrelevant integration times with highly sophisticated detection schemes. High repetition rate high average power fiber lasers can potentially solve this issue. First demonstrations of high repetition-rate strong-field physics experiments using novel fiber laser systems will be discussed.

We present a high-average-power femtosecond laser system at 520 nm central wavelength. The laser system delivers sub- 500 fs pulses with 135 W average power at a pulse repetition rate of 5.25 MHz. Excellent beam quality is provided by high power fiber amplifiers and maintained during frequency doubling, resulting in a beam quality factor of M^2 < 1.2. To our knowledge, the system presented here is the highest average power green laser source generating femtosecond pulses with diffraction-limited beam quality.

We report on the coherent combination of two chirped pulsed fiber lasers. The beams coming from two 100 μm core diameter ytterbium-doped rod-type fibers were coupled in a Mach-Zehnder-type interferometer by means of a polarization beam splitter. Active stabilization of the interferometer was achieved by using a piezo-mounted mirror driven by a Hänsch-Couillaud polarization detection system. Pulses with 120 μJ energy and a compressed duration of 800 fs were obtained. This, compared with the 66 μJ coming from each single amplifier, results in a combining efficiency as high as 91%.

We report on the measurement of the highest purity of polarization of X-rays to date. The measurements are performed by combining a brilliant undulator source with an X-ray polarimeter. The polarimeter is composed of a polarizer and an analyzer, each based on four reflections at channel-cut crystals with a Bragg angle very close to 45°. Experiments were performed at three different X-ray energies, using different Bragg reflections: Si(400) at 6457.0 eV, Si(444) at 11,183.8 eV, and Si(800) at 12,914.0 eV. At 6 keV a polarization purity of 1.5 × 10^-9 is achieved. This is an improvement by more than two orders of magnitude as compared to previously reported values. The polarization purity decreases slightly for shorter X-ray wavelengths. The sensitivity of the polarimeter is discussed with respect to a proposed experiment that aims at the detection of the birefringence of vacuum induced by super-strong laser fields.

In this paper we describe a high power narrow-band amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light source at 1030 nm center wavelength generated in an Yb-doped fiber-based experimental setup. By cutting a small region out of a broadband ASE spectrum using two fiber Bragg gratings a strongly constrained bandwidth of 12±2 pm (3.5±0.6 GHz) is formed. A two-stage high power fiber amplifier system is used to boost the output power up to 697 W with a measured beam quality of M2≤1.34. In an additional experiment we demonstrate a stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) suppression of at least 17 dB (theoretically predicted ~20 dB), which is only limited by the dynamic range of the measurement and not by the onset of SBS when using the described light source. The presented narrow-band ASE source could be of great interest for brightness scaling applications by beam combination, where SBS is known as a limiting factor.

An optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification system delivering pulses with more than 12 GW peak power is presented. Compression to sub- 5 fs, 87 μJ and 5.4 fs, 100 μJ is realized at the 30 kHz repetition rate. A high-energy fiber chirped-pulse amplification system operating at 1 mJ pulse energy and nearly transform-limited pulses is used to achieve ultrabroadband amplification in two 2mm beta-barium borate crystals. Precise pulse shaping is used to compress the pulses to a few percentages of their transform limit. Assuming diffraction limited focusing (d < 2 μm), peak intensities as high as 10^(18) W/cm2 can be reached.

The pulse lengths of intense few-cycle (4 - 10 fs) laser pulses at 790 nm are determined in real-time using a stereographic above-threshold ionization (ATI) measurement of Xe, i.e. the same apparatus recently shown to provide a precise, real-time, every-single-shot, carrier-envelope phase measurement of ultrashort laser pulses. The pulse length is calibrated using spectral-phase interferometry for direct electric-field reconstruction (SPIDER) and roughly agrees with calculations done using quantitative rescattering theory (QRS). This stereo-ATI technique provides the information necessary to characterize the waveform of every pulse in a kHz pulse train, within the Gaussian pulse approximation, and relies upon no theoretical assumptions. Moreover, the real-time display is a highly effective tool for tuning and monitoring ultrashort pulse characteristics.

The two-photon decay of the 2S state to the ground state in dressed atoms and one- or two-electron ions has been studied for several decades. Relativistic calculations have shown an Z-dependence of the spectral shape of this two-photon transition in one- or two-electron ions. We have measured the spectral distribution of the 1s2s 1^S_0 → 1s2 1^S_0 two-photon transition in He-like tin at the ESR storage ring using a new approach for such experiments. In this method, relativistic collisions of initially Li-like projectiles with a gaseous target were used to populate exclusively the first excited state, 1s2s, of He-like tin, which provided a clean two-photon spectrum. The measured two-photon spectral distribution was compared with fully relativistic calculations. The obtained results show very good agreement with the calculations for He-like tin.

his paper presents nondestructive dark current measurements of tera electron volt energy superconducting linear accelerator cavities. The measurements were carried out in an extremely noisy accelerator environment using a low temperature dc superconducting quantum interference device based cryogenic current comparator. The overall current sensitivity under these rough conditions was measured to be 0.2 nA/Hz^1/2, which enables the detection of dark currents of 5 nA.

We report on the experimental demonstration of a fiber chirped- pulse amplification system capable of generating nearly transform-limited sub 500 fs pulses with 2.2 mJ pulse energy at 11 W average power. The resulting record peak power of 3.8 GW could be achieved by combining active phase shaping with an efficient reduction of the acquired nonlinear phase. Therefore, we used an Ytterbium-doped large-pitch fiber with a mode field diameter of 105 µm as the main amplifier.