Generation of Ultra-Short Electron Bunches and FEL Pulses and Characterization of their Longitudinal Properties at FLASH2

The free-electron laser in Hamburg (FLASH) is a user facility, delivering soft X-ray radiation, consisting of two beam lines, FLASH1 and FLASH2. The injector and the main linac are shared between both beam lines. Starting in 2014, FLASH2 has been commissioned for user operation. Currently, there is no hardware installed for the direct measurement of the electron bunch length nor the photon pulse duration at FLASH2. Exact knowledge of the pulse duration is essential for time-resolved user experiments performed at FLASH. Therefore, we are designing a modified beam line, containing a new type of X-band deflecting cavity* and a dipole, downstream of the FLASH2 undulator, to map the longitudinal phase space onto a beam screen. Anticipating the feasibility of measuring the longitudinal phase space with high resolution, a study on optimizing the free-electron laser (FEL) performance for shortest bunches is ongoing