• M. Ferianis
  ELETTRA, Basovizza, Trieste
• J.M. Byrd, J.W.  Staples, R.B. Wilcox
  LBNL, Berkeley, California
• J. Chen, F.O. Ilday, F.X. Kaertner, J. Kim
  MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• A. Winter
  Uni HH, Hamburg

Fermi is the fourth generation light source that is currently being designed at ELETTRA, in the frame of a collaboration that includes LBNL and MIT. The timing system will play a crucial role in achieving the expected performance of this and other Linac based FELs due to the sub-ps electron bunch length and the expanded use of fs-lasers as key components in future light sources. Furthermore, the requirements of the timing system are also tightly linked to the applications of the generated ultrafast x-ray pulses. In this paper we present the requirements for the FERMI timing system, which will be based on optical timing distribution concepts, currently seen to be the only technique to enable an RMS jitter at the 10fs level. The timing system, intended for a user facility that is operated on a 24-h, 7-d basis, must operate stable and reliable. The fundamental components of the system are analyzed, such as the optical reference oscillator, the fiber optic stabilized links and the local optical to electrical (O/E) converters, needed for the RF plant synchronization. Furthermore, solutions for the synchronization of the diagnostic tools for the Linac as well as user related synchronization issues are presented and discussed.

• A. Winter, H. Schlarb
  DESY, Hamburg
• dc. Cheever, J. Chen, F.O. Ilday, F.X. Kaertner, J. Kim, D. Wang, T. Zwart
  MIT, Middleton, Massachusetts
• P. Schmuser
  Uni HH, Hamburg

X-ray pulses with a pulse duration of down to 30 fs FWHM or even sub-fs are desired for various experiments planned at next generation free electron lasers, such as the European XFEL. A synchronization of the probe system in the experimental area to the x-ray pulses with stability on the order of the pulse width is highly desirable for these experiments. This requirement translates to distributing an ultra-stable timing signal to various subsystems of the machine and the experimental area to provide synchronization at the fs level over distances of up to several kilometers. A few years ago, a timing and synchronization system providing stability to the fs level was unthinkable. Recent advances in the field of ultra-short pulse lasers have made optical synchronization systems with such a precision feasible. This talk will focus on an optical approach using a train of ultra-short pulses distributed through optical fiber links. The timing information is contained in the precise repetition rate. First results of such a system operating in an accelerator environment will be reported.

• J.W.  Staples, R.B. Wilcox
  LBNL, Berkeley, California

Funding: This work supported by the US Department of Energy under contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098

Stabilization of the transit time through a glass fiber using an optical heterodyne technique promises to provide jitter reduction down to the few femtosecond level using inexpensive commodity hardware. An acousto-optical frequency shifter provides the optical frequency offset that is used to downconvert phase shifts at optical frequency to equivalent phase shifts at radio frequency which are used to close a phase-lock loop driving a piezoelectric phase shifter. Using the stabilized fiber transmission medium, two spectral lines of a mode locked laser lock two low-power CW lasers which are transmitted to a receiver which phase locks the same spectral lines of a second mode-locked laser to the first. The optical transmission system operates at low power and is linear, providing excellent signal-to-noise ratio and allows many signals to be transmitted without mutual interference. Experimental results will be presented.

• I. Will
  MBI, Berlin
• S. Düsterer, J. Feldhaus, E. Plönjes, H. Redlin
  DESY, Hamburg

Funding: This work was funded by the European Commission under Contract no. HPRI-CT-1999-50009

The VUV-FEL at DESY provides ultra-short pulses with pulse durations below 50 fs. To explore a wider field of time resolved experiments a complex laser system has been installed delivering 150 fs pulses at a wavelength of 800 nm with 50 μJ pulse energy at 1MHz repetition rate during the FEL burst (of 800 μs). In order to perform two color pump-probe experiments the laser has to be synchronized to the FEL. To ensure precise and reliable synchronized operation of the laser, various diagnostic experiments have been developed. Concepts as well as first results of the synchronization will be shown.