Photon Beamlines and Diagnostics at LCLS

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is the first hard-x-ray free electron laser in operation. The turn-on of LCLS was rapid and operation has been reliable. Performance has exceeded the design parameters in several areas. The photon energy output covers a range from 480 eV to over 9 keV; the pulse energy is typically 2-3 mJ, with a maximum of 4 mJ at 2 keV. Electron pulse lengths can be varied from 500 fs to shorter than 10 fs. A low-charge option at 20 pC is being explored, which delivers pulses shorter than 10 fs with a reduced pulse energy, typically around 0.2 mJ. On-demand, single-shot and multi-shot modes up to 60 Hz (planned is 120 Hz) can be made available. The photon diagnostics built for LCLS have been commissioned and provide measurements of various properties of the FEL beam, such as pulse energy, beam size and position, wavelength, and allows for intensity attenuation over the entire wavelength range. The two soft x-ray instruments, the Atomic Molecular and Optics (AMO) and Soft X-ray Material Science (SXR) stations, are fully operational and completed their second user run in mid September 2010. The third user run is scheduled from October to December 2010, and will include the first hard x-ray instrument X-ray Pump-and-Probe (XPP). Three additional hard x-ray stations will follow: CXI (Coherent X-ray Imaging) is planned to start commissioning in December 2010, the XCS (X-ray correlation spectroscopy) instrument will start in June 2011, and the station for Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) in 2012. A list of past and future milestones for LCLS commission and operations is shown in table 1. The LCLS hard x-ray Free Electron Laser at SLAC reported first lasing in April of 2009. Since then two successful user runs have been completed at the two soft x-ray stations. The first hard x-ray station has started commissioning in July of 2010. Beam diagnostics play an essential role for tuning the machine and delivering the requested beam properties to the users. An overview of the LCLS photon diagnostics will be presented including some selected commissioning results. Plans for future improvements and upgrades will be briefly discussed.