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XUV and X-ray Free Electron Lasers (FELs) produce short wavelength pulses with high intensity, ultrashort duration, well-defined polarization and transverse coherence, and have been utilised for many experiments previously possible at long wavelengths only: multiphoton ionization, pumping an atomic laser, and four-wave mixing spectroscopy. However one important optical technique, coherent control, has not yet been demonstrated, because Self- Amplified Spontaneous Emission FELs have limited longitudinal coherence. Single-colour pulses from the FERMI seeded FEL are longitudinally coherent, and two-colour emission is predicted to be coherent. Here we demonstrate the phase correlation of two colours, and manipulate it to control an experiment. Light of wavelengths 63.0 and 31.5 nm ionized neon, and the asymmetry of the photoelectron angular distribution was controlled by adjusting the phase, with temporal resolution 3 attoseconds. This opens the door to new shortwavelength coherent control experiments with ultrahigh time resolution and chemical sensitivity.

One of the problems often encountered in X-ray mirror manufacturing is setting proper manufacturing tolerances to guarantee an angular resolution - often expressed in terms of Point Spread Function (PSF) - as needed by the specific science goal. To do this, we need an accurate metrological apparatus, covering a very broad range of spatial frequencies, and an affordable method to compute the PSF from the metrology dataset. [...] However, the separation between these spectral ranges is difficult do define exactly, and it is also unclear how to affordably combine the PSFs, computed with different methods in different spectral ranges, into a PSF expectation at a given X-ray energy. For this reason, we have proposed a method entirely based on the Huygens-Fresnel principle to compute the diffracted field of real Wolter-I optics, including measured defects over a wide range of spatial frequencies. Owing to the shallow angles at play, the computation can be simplified limiting the computation to the longitudinal profiles, neglecting completely the effect of roundness errors. Other authors had already proposed similar approaches in the past, but only in far-field approximation, therefore they could not be applied to the case of Wolter-I optics, in which two reflections occur in sequence within a short range. The method we suggest is versatile, as it can be applied to multiple reflection systems, at any X-ray energy, and regardless of the nominal shape of the mirrors in the optical system. The method has been implemented in the WISE code, successfully used to explain the measured PSFs of multilayer-coated optics for astronomic use, and of a K-B optical system in use at the FERMI free electron laser.

The realization of X-ray telescopes with imaging capabilities in the hard (> 10 keV) X-ray band requires the adoption of optics with shallow (< 0.25 deg) grazing angles to enhance the reflectivity of reflective coatings. On the other hand, to obtain large collecting area, large mirror diameters (< 350 mm) are necessary. This implies that mirrors with focal lengths >10 m shall be produced and tested. Full-illumination tests of such mirrors are usually performed with on- ground X-ray facilities, aimed at measuring their effective area and the angular resolution; however, they in general suffer from effects of the finite distance of the X-ray source, e.g. a loss of effective area for double reflection. These effects increase with the focal length of the mirror under test; hence a "partial" full-illumination measurement might not be fully representative of the in-flight performances. Indeed, a pencil beam test can be adopted to overcome this shortcoming, because a sector at a time is exposed to the X-ray flux, and the compensation of the beam divergence is achieved by tilting the optic. In this work we present the result of a hard X-ray test campaign performed at the BL20B2 beamline of the SPring-8 synchrotron radiation facility, aimed at characterizing the Point Spread Function (PSF) of a multilayer-coated Wolter-I mirror shell manufactured by Nickel electroforming. The mirror shell is a demonstrator for the NHXM hard X-ray imaging telescope (0.3 - 80 keV), with a predicted HEW (Half Energy Width) close to 20 arcsec. We show some reconstructed PSFs at monochromatic X-ray energies of 15 to 63 keV, and compare them with the PSFs computed from post-campaign metrology data, self-consistently treating profile and roughness data by means of a method based on the Fresnel diffraction theory. The modeling matches the measured PSFs accurately.

We present the experimental demonstration of a method for generating two spectrally and temporally separated pulses by an externally seeded, single-pass free-electron laser operating in the extreme-ultraviolet spectral range. Our results, collected on the FERMI@Elettra facility and confirmed by numerical simulations, demonstrate the possibility of controlling both the spectral and temporal features of the generated pulses. A free-electron laser operated in this mode becomes a suitable light source for jitter-free, two-colour pump-probe experiments.

To enhance the reflectivity of X-ray mirrors beyond the critical angle, multilayer coatings are required. Interface imperfections in the multilayer growth process are known to cause non-specular scattering and degrade the mirror optical performance; therefore, it is important to predict the amount of X-ray scattering from the rough topography of the outer surface of the coating, which can be directly measured, e.g., with an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). This kind of characterization, combined with X-ray reflectivity measurements to assess the deep multilayer stack structure, can be used to model the layer roughening during the growth process via a well-known roughness evolution model. In this work, X-ray scattering measurements are performed and compared with simulations obtained from the modeled interfacial Power Spectral Densities (PSDs) and the modeled Crossed Spectral Densities for all the couples of interfaces. We already used this approach in a previous work for periodic multilayers; we now show how this method can be extended to graded multilayers. The upgraded code is validated for both periodic and graded multilayers, with a good accord between experimental data and model findings. Doing this, different kind of defects observed in AFM scans are included in the PSD analysis. The subsequent data-model comparison enables us to recognize them as surface contamination or interfacial defects that contribute to the X-ray scattering of the multilayer., Comment: 4th IWXM conference, Barcelona, Jul 2012. Published in NIM-A on May 11, 2013. AAM posted to arXiv as per Elsevier's Article posting policy. Published paper available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2012.10.104

X-ray mirrors with high focusing performances are in use in both mirror modules for X-ray telescopes and in synchrotron and FEL (Free Electron Laser) beamlines. A degradation of the focus sharpness arises in general from geometrical deformations and surface roughness, the former usually described by geometrical optics and the latter by physical optics. In general, technological developments are aimed at a very tight focusing, which requires the mirror profile to comply with the nominal shape as much as possible and to keep the roughness at a negligible level. However, a deliberate deformation of the mirror can be made to endow the focus with a desired size and distribution, via piezo actuators as done at the EIS-TIMEX beamline of FERMI@Elettra. The resulting profile can be characterized with a Long Trace Profilometer and correlated with the expected optical quality via a wavefront propagation code. However, if the roughness contribution can be neglected, the computation can be performed via a ray-tracing routine, and, under opportune assumptions, the focal spot profile (the Point Spread Function, PSF) can even be predicted analytically. The advantage of this approach is that the analytical relation can be reversed; i.e, from the desired PSF the required mirror profile can be computed easily, thereby avoiding the use of complex and time-consuming numerical codes. The method can also be suited in the case of spatially inhomogeneous beam intensities, as commonly experienced at Synchrotrons and FELs. In this work we expose the analytical method and the application to the beam shaping problem., Comment: 4th IWXM conference, Barcelona, Jul 2012. Published in NIM-A on May 11, 2013. AAM posted to arXiv as per Elsevier's Article posting policy. Published paper available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2012.10.117