Mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

S P Weathersby; G Brown; M Centurion; T F Chase; R Coffee; J Corbett; J P Eichner; J C Frisch; A R Fry; M Gühr; N Hartmann; C Hast; R Hettel; R K Jobe; E N Jongewaard; J R Lewandowski; R K Li; A M Lindenberg; I Makasyuk; J E May; D McCormick; M N Nguyen; A H Reid; X Shen; K Sokolowski-Tinten; T Vecchione; S L Vetter; J Wu; J Yang; H A Dürr; X J Wang

doi:10.1063/1.4926994

Mega-electron-volt ultrafast electron diffraction at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Rev Sci Instrum. 2015 Jul;86(7):073702. doi: 10.1063/1.4926994.

Authors

S P Weathersby¹, G Brown¹, M Centurion², T F Chase¹, R Coffee¹, J Corbett¹, J P Eichner¹, J C Frisch¹, A R Fry¹, M Gühr¹, N Hartmann¹, C Hast¹, R Hettel¹, R K Jobe¹, E N Jongewaard¹, J R Lewandowski¹, R K Li¹, A M Lindenberg¹, I Makasyuk¹, J E May¹, D McCormick¹, M N Nguyen¹, A H Reid¹, X Shen¹, K Sokolowski-Tinten³, T Vecchione¹, S L Vetter¹, J Wu¹, J Yang², H A Dürr¹, X J Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
² University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 855 N 16th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
³ University of Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstrasse 1, 47048 Duisburg, Germany.

PMID: 26233391
DOI: 10.1063/1.4926994

Abstract

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.