Author: Hölzer, P.
Paper Title Page
TUPD17 Seeding of SPARC-FEL with a Tunable Fibre-based Source 269
 
  • N.Y. Joly
    University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
  • S. Bielawski
    PhLAM/CERCLA, Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, France
  • W. Chang, P. Hölzer, K. Mak, P.St.J. Russell, F. Tani, J.C. Travers
    Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany
  • F. Ciocci, L. Giannessi, A. Petralia, M. Quattromini
    ENEA C.R. Frascati, Frascati (Roma), Italy
  • M.-E. Couprie, M. Labat, T. Tanikawa
    SOLEIL, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
  • G. De Ninno, B. Mahieu
    Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Basovizza, Italy
  • G. Gatti
    INFN/LNF, Frascati (Roma), Italy
  • V. Petrillo
    Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Milano, Italy
  • J.V. Rau
    ISM-CNR, Rome, Italy
 
  Instead of seeding a free electron laser in the UV-VUV with a frequency doubled or tripled laser or high order harmonics, here we investigate and present the first results on seeding SPARC-FEL with a fiber-based tunable ultraviolet source. The seed generation system consists of a kagomé hollow-core photonic crystal fiber filled with noble gas. Diffraction-limited DUV pulses of >50 nJ and fs-duration which are continuously tunable from below 200 nm to above 300 nm are generated. The process is based on soliton-effect self-compression of the pump pulse down to a few optical cycles, accompanied by the emission of a resonant dispersive wave in the DUV spectral region. The quality of the compression highly depends on the pump pulse duration, and ideally, pulses <60 fs should be used. Our experimental set-up and associated GENESIS simulations enable us to study the utility of the seed tunability, and the influence of the seed quality, on the performance of the SPARC-FEL in the 200-300 nm range.