A recirculating linac based synchrotron light source for ultrafast x-ray science

LBNL is pursuing a multi-divisional initiative that has this year further developed design studies and the scientific program for a facility dedicated to the production of x-ray pulses with ultra-short time duration. Our proposed x-ray facility [1] has the short x-ray pulse length ({approx};60 fs FWHM) necessary to study very fast dynamics, high flux (approximately 1011 photons/sec/0.1 percentBW) to study weakly scattering systems, and tuneability over 1-10 keV photon energy. The photon production section of the machine accomodates seven 2m long undulators and six 2T field dipole magnets. The x-ray pulse repetition rate of 10 kHz is matched to studies of dynamical processes (initiated by ultra-short laser pulses) that typicaly have a long recovery time or are not generally cyclic or reversible and need time to allow relaxation, replacement, or flow of the sample. The technique for producing ultra-short x-ray pulses uses relatively long electron bunches to minimise high-peak-current collective effects, and the ultimate x-ray duration is achieved by a combination of bunch manipulation and optical compression