Abstract

The surface damage was investigated on suitable material to infer the focused beam characteristics of soft x-ray lasers. The method was tested with the beam of FLASH [Free-Electron LASer in Hamburg; λ = (6–60) nm, τ ~ 10 fs, E_pulse ~ 10 μJ]. Results obtained at FLASH wavelengths of 32.5 nm, 21.7 nm, and 13.5 nm were compared with the beam properties determined by other methods. The initial experiments were carried out at 7.0 nm and 13.5 nm to evaluate a possible use of this method for the x-ray FEL beam characterization at LCLS/XFEL facilities.

© 2008 Optical Society of America