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We present the first lasing results of SwissFEL, a hard X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) that recently came into operation at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. SwissFEL is a very stable, compact and cost-effective X-ray FEL facility driven by a low-energy and ultra-low-emittance electron beam travelling through short-period undulators. It delivers stable hard X-ray FEL radiation at 1-A wavelength with pulse energies of more than 500 μJ, pulse durations of ~30 fs (root mean square) and spectral bandwidth below the per-mil level. Using special configurations, we have produced pulses shorter than 1 fs and, in a different set-up, broadband radiation with an unprecedented bandwidth of ~2%. The extremely small emittance demonstrated at SwissFEL paves the way for even more compact and affordable hard X-ray FELs, potentially boosting the number of facilities worldwide and thereby expanding the population of the scientific community that has access to X-ray FEL radiation. The first lasing results at SwissFEL, an X-ray free-electron laser, are presented, highlighting the facility’s unique capabilities. A general comparison to other major facilities is also provided.

Use of the charge-integrating JUNGFRAU detector for fluorescence detection is investigated, and its applications in macromolecular crystallography at synchrotron and X-ray free-electron laser sources are demonstrated., Detection of heavy elements, such as metals, in macromolecular crystallography (MX) samples by X-ray fluorescence is a function traditionally covered at synchrotron MX beamlines by silicon drift detectors, which cannot be used at X-ray free-electron lasers because of the very short duration of the X-ray pulses. Here it is shown that the hybrid pixel charge-integrating detector JUNGFRAU can fulfill this function when operating in a low-flux regime. The feasibility of precise position determination of micrometre-sized metal marks is also demonstrated, to be used as fiducials for offline prelocation in serial crystallography experiments, based on the specific fluorescence signal measured with JUNGFRAU, both at the synchrotron and at SwissFEL. Finally, the measurement of elemental absorption edges at a synchrotron beamline using JUNGFRAU is also demonstrated.

Synchrotrons and modern FEL light sources operate with bunch repetition rates in the MHz range. The profile of the electron beam inside the accelerator can be characterized with indirect experimental techniques where linear array detectors are employed to measure the emitted synchrotron radiation or the spectrum of a near-IR laser. To improve the performance of modern beam diagnostics we have developed KALYPSO, a detector system operating with a continuous frame rate of up to 2.7 MHz. To facilitate the integration in different experiments, a modular architecture has been adopted. Different semiconductor micro-strip sensors can be connected to front-end ASICs to optimize the quantum efficiency at different photon energies, ranging from visible light up to near-IR. The front-end electronics are integrated within an heterogeneous DAQ consisting of FPGAs and GPUs, which allows scientists to implement real-time data processing algorithms. The current version of the detector is in operation at the KARA synchrotron light source and at the European XFEL. In this contribution we present the detector architecture, the performance results and the on-going technical developments.

International audience; The Bernina instrument at the SwissFEL Aramis hard X-ray free-electron laser is designed for studying ultrafast phenomena in condensed matter and material science. Ultrashort pulses from an optical laser system covering a large wavelength range can be used to generate specific non-equilibrium states, whose subsequent temporal evolution can be probed by selective X-ray scattering techniques in the range 2–12 keV. For that purpose, the X-ray beamline is equipped with optical elements which tailor the X-ray beam size and energy, as well as with pulse-to-pulse diagnostics that monitor the X-ray pulse intensity, position, as well as its spectral and temporal properties. The experiments can be performed using multiple interchangeable endstations differing in specialization, diffractometer and X-ray analyser configuration and load capacity for specialized sample environment. After testing the instrument in a series of pilot experiments in 2018, regular user operation begins in 2019.

Optical-domain Transient Grating (TG) spectroscopy is a versatile background-free four-wave-mixing technique used to probe vibrational, magnetic and electronic degrees of freedom in the time domain. The newly developed coherent X-ray Free Electron Laser sources allow its extension to the X-ray regime. Xrays offer multiple advantages for TG: their large penetration depth allows probing the bulk properties of materials, their element-specificity can address core-excited states, and their short wavelengths create excitation gratings with unprecedented momentum transfer and spatial resolution. We demonstrate for the first time TG excitation in the hard X-ray range at 7.1 keV. In Bismuth Germanate (BGO), the nonresonant TG excitation generates coherent optical phonons detected as a function of time by diffraction of an optical probe pulse. This experiment demonstrates the ability to probe bulk properties of materials and paves the way for ultrafast coherent four-wave-mixing techniques using X-ray probes and involving nanoscale TG spatial periods., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

JUNGFRAU is the pixel detector developed at PSI for SwissFEL [1]. Although the detector development was driven by the SwissFEL requirements, it was soon realized that such a detector could also be ...

The accuracy of X-ray diffraction data is directly related to how the X-ray detector records photons. Here we describe the application of a direct-detection charge-integrating pixel-array detector (JUNGFRAU) in macromolecular crystallography (MX). JUNGFRAU features a uniform response on the subpixel level, linear behavior toward high photon rates, and low-noise performance across the whole dynamic range. We demonstrate that these features allow accurate MX data to be recorded at unprecedented speed. We also demonstrate improvements over previous-generation detectors in terms of data quality, using native single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD) phasing, for thaumatin, lysozyme, and aminopeptidase N. Our results suggest that the JUNGFRAU detector will substantially improve the performance of synchrotron MX beamlines and equip them for future synchrotron light sources. published

MYTHEN 3 is a new single-photon-counting readout chip being developed by the SLS detector group in 110 nm UMC technology. It will equip a 60 k-channel, 50 μ m pitch microstrip detector optimized for powder diffraction experiments. Every readout channel features an amplifier and a shaper with variable gain and shaping time. The shaper output is fed to three independent discriminators, each one having a dedicated threshold, trim bit set and enable signal. The outputs of the three discriminators are processed by the counting logic section which, according to the mode of operation selected, generates the hits for the three following 24-bit counters. Several operation modes are foreseen: dual polarity, energy-windowing, count rate improvement, charge sharing suppression and pump with multiple probe time slots. The first 64-channel prototype has been tested in the lab, with fluorescence X-rays and with a synchrotron beam to characterize its noise and count rate capability. Based on the results obtained from the first chip a second 64-channel prototype has been developed and sent to production. The architecture of the chip and characterization results of the first chip will be presented.

The AGIPD (adaptive gain integrating pixel detector) detector is a high frame rate (4.5 MHz) and high dynamic range (up to 10 4 ·12.4 keV photons) detector with single photon resolution (down to 4 keV taking 5 σ as limit and lowest noise settings) developed for the European XFEL (XFEL.EU). This work is focused on the characterization of AGIPD1.0, which is the first full scale version of the chip. The chip is 64×64 pixels and each pixel has a size of 200×200 μm 2 . Each pixel can store up to 352 images at a rate of 4.5 MHz (corresponding to 220 ns). A detailed characterization of the AGIPD1.0 chip has been performed in order to assess the main performance of the ASIC in terms of gain, noise, speed and dynamic range. From the measurements presented in this paper a good uniformity of the gain, a noise around 320 e − (rms) in standard mode and around 240 e − (rms) in high gain mode has been measured. Furthermore a detailed discussion about the non-linear behavior after the gain switching is presented with both experimental results and simulations.

The SLS detectors group has a longstanding history in the development of hybrid X-ray detectors for synchrotrons [1]. Hybrid detectors consist of a sensor (usually silicon) absorbing the photons and front-end electronics transforming the charge into a measurable signal. The two parts are distinct and can therefore be optimized separately, depending on the application. The group has the know-how to design sensors and Read-Out Chips (ROC) in-house, assemble the detectors with a high yield for a large number of channels (both wire- and bump-bonding), and develop data acquisition systems and software. The detectors must provide high-quality data and be reliable for the daily user operation at the beamlines. They are normally developed to target specific applications, and particular effort is put into the integration of the systems at the beamlines and on their reliability. The detector group works in close connection with the beamline scientists of the SLS as early as the development phase and then later to t...

Characterization and performance measurements have been done on several EIGER detector systems, produced with chips coming from two different lots, both with a lab X-ray source and at the Swiss Light Source (SLS). Results on the detector calibration, electronic noise, threshold dispersion, minimum achievable energy threshold, maximum detectable incoming photon flux and maximum frame rate are presented. An EIGER module is constructed from a ∼ 4 × 8 cm 2 monolithic silicon sensor bump-bonded to 2 ×4 readout chips and contains 0.5 Mpixel. The first EIGER 500 K systems have been produced and images taken with these detectors are shown. Modules can be tiled together to form large area detectors; both a 9 Mpixel and a 16 Mpixel systems are at present under development for the coherent small angle X-ray scattering and protein crystallography beamlines of the SLS.

Single photon sensitivity is an important property of certain detection systems. This work investigated the single photon sensitivity of the Adaptive Gain Integrating Pixel Detector (AGIPD) and its dependence on possible detector noise values. Due to special requirements at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) the AGIPD finds the number of photons absorbed in each pixel by integrating the total signal. Photon counting is done off line on a thresholded data set. It was shown that AGIPD will be sensitive to single photons of 8 keV energy or more (detection efficiency $\gg$ 50%, less than 1 count due to noise per 10$^6$ pixels). Should the final noise be at the lower end of the possible range (200 - 400 electrons) single photon sensitivity can also be achieved at 5 keV beam energy. It was shown that charge summing schemes are beneficial when the noise is sufficiently low. The total detection rate of events is increased and the probability to count a single event multiple times in adjacent pixels is reduced by a factor of up to 40. The entry window of AGIPD allows 3 keV photons to reach the sensitive volume with approximately 70% probability. Therefore the low energy performance of AGIPD was explored, finding a maximum noise floor below 0.035 hits/pixel/frame at 3 keV beam energy. Depending on the noise level and selected threshold this value can be reduced by a factor of approximately 10. Even though single photon sensitivity, as defined in this work, is not given, imaging at this energy is still possible, allowing Poisson noise limited performance for signals significantly above the noise floor., Comment: revised version after peer review

A high-frame-rate single-photon-counting pixel detector named Eiger and its suitability for X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy are described., Eiger is the next-generation single-photon-counting pixel detector following the widely used Pilatus detector. Its smaller pixel size of 75 µm × 75 µm, higher frame rate of up to 22 kHz, and practically zero dead-time (∼4 µs) between exposures will further various measurement methods at synchrotron sources. In this article Eiger’s suitability for X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) is demonstrated. By exploiting its high frame rate, complementary small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and XPCS data are collected in parallel to determine both the structure factor and collective diffusion coefficient of a nano-colloid suspension. For the first time, correlation times on the submillisecond time scale are accessible with a large-area pixel detector.

The spatial resolution of a single-photon-resolving integrating system has been improved using a non-linear charge interpolation approach. The resolution limit for a 20 µm-pitch sensor is presented., A synchrotron beam has been used to test the spatial resolution of a single-photon-resolving integrating readout-chip coupled to a 320 µm-thick silicon strip sensor with a dedicated readout system. Charge interpolation methods have yielded a spatial resolution of σx ≃ 1.8 µm for a 20 µm-pitch strip.

EIGER is an advanced family of single photon counting hybrid pixel detectors, primarily aimed at diffraction experiments at synchrotrons. Optimization of maximal functionality and minimal pixel size (using a 0.25 μ m process and conserving the radiation tolerant design) has resulted in 75 × 75 μ m 2 pixels. Every pixel comprises a preamplifier, shaper, discriminator (with a 6 bit DAC for threshold trimming), a configurable 4/8/12 bit counter with double buffering, as well as readout, control and test circuitry. A novel feature of this chip is its double buffered counter, meaning a next frame can be acquired while the previous one is being readout. An array of 256×256 pixels fits on a ∼ 2 × 2 cm 2 chip and a sensor of ∼ 8 × 4 cm 2 will be equipped with eight readout chips to form a module containing 0.5 Mpixel. Several modules can then be tiled to form larger area detectors. Detectors up to 4×8 modules (16 Mpixel) are planned. To achieve frame rates of up to 24 kHz the readout architecture is highly parallel, and the chip readout happens in parallel on 32 readout lines with a 100 MHz Double Data Rate clock. Several chips and singles (i.e. a single chip bump-bonded to a single chip silicon sensor) were tested both with a lab X-ray source and at Swiss Light Source (SLS) beamlines. These tests demonstrate the full functionality of the chip and provide a first assessment of its performance. High resolution X-ray images and “high speed movies” were produced, even without threshold trimming, at the target system frame rates (up to ∼ 24 kHz in 4 bit mode). In parallel, dedicated hardware, firmware and software had to be developed to comply with the enormous data rate the chip is capable of delivering. Details of the chip design and tests will be given, as well as highlights of both test and final readout systems.

A charge integrating readout chip for silicon strip sensors is currently under development at Paul Sherrer Institut. The goal of the project is to provide a readout system that can sustain, through charge integration and automatic gain switching, the instantaneous many-photon deposition typical of the forthcoming XFEL machines. Nevertheless, a charge integrating readout with single photon sensitivity presents several features that can be exploited in many Synchrotron source applications: the possibility of a higher position resolution, the high photon rate capabilities and the possibility to detect low energy photon. A prototype of the readout chip (ROC) has been integrated with a strip detector and with a dedicated DAQ electronic, and it has been tested at the SYRMEP beam line (ELETTRA, Trieste). This work presents the readout chip and shows the results of the beam line tests in terms of spatial resolution and rate capabilities.

The European X-ray free electron laser is a new research facility currently under construction in Hamburg, Germany. Typical for XFEL machines is the high peak brilliance several orders of magnitudes above existing synchrotron facilities. With a pulse length below 100 fs and an extremely high luminosity of 30,000 flashes per second the European XFEL will have a worldwide unique time structure that enables researchers to record movies of ultrafast processes. This demands the development of new detectors tailored to the requirements imposed by the experiments while complying with the machine specific operation parameters. The adaptive gain integrating pixel detector (AGIPD) is one response to the need for large 2D detectors, able to cope with the 5 MHz repetition rate, as well as with the high dynamic range needed by XFEL experiments (from single photons to 104 12 keV photons per pixel per pulse). In addition, doses up to 1 GGy over three years are expected.

Synchrotron radiation applications require detectors with a high sensitivity and a large dynamic range in order to study both the strong and weak features of the samples. Moreover, a high spatial resolution is necessary for imaging and diffraction studies. The photon counting technique is currently the best solution to these requirements but it presents some limitations which can only be partially overcome by technological improvements i.e. the count loss at high impinging intensities, due to the readout electronics shaping time, and the restrictions on the minimum pixel size, due to the charge diffusion in the sensor. In order to overcome both these limitations a new generation of charge integrating hybrid detectors with single photon sensitivity is being developed. These preserve the advantages of counting detectors and at the same time allow a processing of the analog information in order to enhance the spatial resolution and perform some spectral analysis. A comparison between purely counting and analog readout for 50 and 25 μ m pitch microstrip detectors is presented in terms of spectral reconstruction capability and spatial resolution.

AGIPD (Adaptive Gain Integrating Pixel Detector) is currently under development for the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL). It is a hybrid pixel detector with a specifi cally developed readout chip bump bonded to a silicon sensor. The chip is being designed in IBM 0.13 µm CMOS technology. This paper is focused on the readout chip design. The main challenges for this chip are: the high dynamic range (1 - 1.4× 10 4 ) with single photon sensitivity, the long storage chain (≥ 200) with a long hold time (99 ms), and the high radiation dose (up to 100 MGy). A charge integrating amplifier with a gain adaptive to the number of in coming photons is combined with a correlated double sampling (CDS) buffer to achieve the required dynamic range and single photon sensitivity. Several techniques are implemented in the storage cell design in order to reduce lea kage current and signal-dependent charge injection. Four prototype chips have been designed for testing the performance of the implemented switches, capacitors, amplifiers, storage cells and periphery circuitry. The recently submit ted test chip has a 16× 16 pixel matrix , 100 storage cells in each pixel and a periphery circuitry for accessing and contr olling the pixels and storage cells.

A report on the characterization, calibration and performances of the MYTHEN photon-counting silicon microstrip detector at the powder diffraction station at the Swiss Light Source is given., The MYTHEN single-photon-counting silicon microstrip detector has been developed at the Swiss Light Source for time-resolved powder diffraction experiments. An upgraded version of the detector has been installed at the SLS powder diffraction station allowing the acquisition of diffraction patterns over 120° in 2θ in fractions of seconds. Thanks to the outstanding performance of the detector and to the calibration procedures developed, the quality of the data obtained is now comparable with that of traditional high-resolution point detectors in terms of FWHM resolution and peak profile shape, with the additional advantage of fast and simultaneous acquisition of the full diffraction pattern. MYTHEN is therefore optimal for time-resolved or dose-critical measurements. The characteristics of the MYTHEN detector together with the calibration procedures implemented for the optimization of the data are described in detail. The refinements of two known standard powders are discussed together with a remarkable application of MYTHEN to organic compounds in relation to the problem of radiation damage.

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) is a radiotherapic technique exploiting the α particles produced after the irradiation of the isotope 10 of boron with thermal neutrons in the capture reaction B ( n , α ) 7 10 Li . It is used to treat tumours that for their features (radioresistance, extension, localization near vital organs) cannot be treated through conventional photon-beams radiotherapy. One of the main limitations of this technique is the lack of specificity (i.e. the ability of localizing in tumour cells, saving the healthy tissues) of the compounds used to carry the 10B isotope in the organs to be treated. This work, developed in the framework of the INFN PhoNeS project, describes the possibility of boron imaging performed exploiting the neutrons photoproduced by a linac (the Clinac 2100C/D of the S. Anna Hospital Radiotherapy Unit in Como, Italy) and detecting the α s with a non-depleted microstrip silicon detector: the result is a 1D scan of the boron concentration. Several boron doped samples have been analysed, from solutions of H 3 BO 3 (reaching a minimum detectable amount of 25 ng of 10B) to biological samples of urine containing BPA and BSH (the two molecules currently used for the clinical trials in BNCT) in order to build kinetic curves (showing the absolute 10B concentration as a function of time). Further measurements are under way to test the imaging system with 10BPA–Fructose complex perfused human lung samples.

The Microstrip sYstem for Time rEsolved experimeNts (MYTHEN) detector is a silicon microstrip detector with single photon counting readout developed for powder diffraction experiments at the Swiss Light Source. A one-dimensional 30 k channels system covering 120° has been installed at the Material Science beamline and is being used for users operation since the end of 2007. Due to its massively parallel detection of X-rays and fast readout, it is optimized for time-resolved or dose–critical measurements that can be performed in fractions of a second on the whole angular range. The intensity of the synchrotron radiation source can be exploited thanks to the high counting rate capability. Promising results have been obtained also for other synchrotron radiation applications like imaging and pump-and-probe experiments. The detector characteristics will be described in detail and its outstanding performances will be shown.

This paper reports the measurements that have been performed both in the Silicon Detector Laboratory at the University of Insubria (Como, Italy) and at the Instituto Ricerche SOlari Locarno (IRSOL) to characterize a CMOS pixel particle detector as a visible light camera. The CMOS sensor has been studied in terms of Quantum Efficiency in the visible spectrum, image blooming and reset inefficiency in saturation condition. The main goal of these measurements is to prove that this kind of particle detector can also be used as an ultra fast, 100% fill factor visible light camera in solar physics experiments.

New, multi-pixel, air-filled ionization chamber for beam monitoring was constructed. For processing of 400 input signals, it utilizes a dedicated, homemade ASIC. Device parameters: sensitivity, resolution, dynamic range, etc. are discussed together with results from the particle beam tests.

We are developing a new family of hybrid, single photon counting X-ray detectors for very high frame rate applications. A dedicated readout chip was designed, to be used as building block for detectors up to 9 Mpixel and about 550 cm 2 area. It has an area of 19.3 × 20.0 mm 2 and contains 256 × 256 pixels of 75 × 75 μ m 2 , resulting in an active region of 19.2 × 19.2 mm 2 . Each pixel contains a 12 bit counter with double buffering for continuous image acquisition. Moreover, it allows a partial readout (4, 8 or 12 bits) with corresponding frame rates up to 24, 12 and 8 kHz. The chip is designed with Hardening By Design techniques [1] , to obtain high radiation tolerance from a standard commercial 0.25 μ m CMOS technology. The chip was recently received from fabrication and it is at present under test.

The hybrid pixel technology combines silicon sensors with CMOS-processing chips by a 2D micro bump-bonding interconnection technology developed at Paul Scherrer Institute [C. Broennimann, E.F. Eikenberry, B. Henrich, R. Horisberger, G. Huelsen, E. Pohl, B. Schmitt, C. Schulze-Briese, M. Suzuki, T. Tomizaki, H. Toyokawa, A. Wagner. J. Synchrotron Rad. 13 (2005) 120 [1] ; T. Rohe, C. Broennimann, F. Glaus, J. Gobrecht, S. Heising, M. Horisberger, R. Horisberger, H.C. Kaestl, J. Lehmann, S. Streuli, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. Phys. Res. A 565 (2006) 303 [2] ]. PILATUS hybrid pixel detectors like other instruments [X. Llopart, M. Campell, R. Dinapoli, D. San Segundo, E. Pernigotti. IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 49 (2002) 2279 [3] ; N. Boudet, J.-F. Berar, L. Blanquart, P. Breugon, B. Caillot, J.-C. Clemens, I. Koudobine, P. Delpierre, C. Mouget, R. Potheau, I. Valin, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. Phys. Res. A 510 (2003) 41 [4] ] are operating in the so-called “single photon counting mode”: Every X-ray quantum is directly converted into an electrical signal and counted by the detector system. Several prototype detectors in various geometries were produced, tested and established at different synchrotron beamlines worldwide. We explain the technology and present some recent highlights from various fields of applications.

The MythenII readout chip has specifically been developed as the front end chip for a silicon strip detector for powder diffraction at the SLS. It works in single photon counting mode and each channel consists of a charge sensitive preamp followed by two gain stages, a comparator with a 6arctime of bit trim DAC and a 24 bit gateable counter. The noise of 195 electrons ENC allows to detect photons with energies as low as 5 keV. The maximum photon count rate is up to about 3 MHz per channel and the minimum readout time is shorter than 100 μ s . Besides powder diffraction, the chip can be beneficially used for many different X-ray applications (e.g. small angle scattering and scanning imaging [D. Dreossi, et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 570 (2007) 160]).

X-ray phase contrast imaging enables the measurement of the electron density of a sample with high sensitivity compared to the conventional absorption contrast. This is advantageous for the study of dose-sensitive samples, in particular, for biological and medical investigations. Recent developments relaxed the requirement for the beam coherence, such that conventional X-ray sources can be used for phase contrast imaging and thus clinical applications become possible. One of the prominent phase contrast imaging methods, Talbot-Lau grating interferometry, is limited by the manufacturing, alignment, and photon absorption of the analyzer grating, which is placed in the beam path in front of the detector. We propose an alternative improved method based on direct conversion charge integrating detectors, which enables a grating interferometer to be operated without an analyzer grating. Algorithms are introduced, which resolve interference fringes with a periodicity of 4.7 μm recorded with a 25 μm pitch Si micro...

Antiproton annihilation cross sections on medium-heavy and heavy nuclear targets are measured for the first time at 5.3 MeV kinetic energy at the Antiprotons Decelerator facility of CERN. The results agree with the expected behavior from the black-disk model with the Coulomb corrections.