Demonstration of full polarization control of soft X‐ray pulses with Apple X undulators at SwissFEL using recoil ion momentum spectroscopy

The ability to freely control the polarization of X‐rays enables measurement techniques relying on circular or linear dichroism, which have become indispensable tools for characterizing the properties of chiral molecules or magnetic structures. Therefore, the demand for polarization control in X‐ray free‐electron lasers is increasing to enable polarization‐sensitive dynamical studies on ultrafast time scales. The soft X‐ray branch Athos of SwissFEL was designed with the aim of providing freely adjustable and arbitrary polarization by building its undulator solely from modules of the novel Apple X type. In this paper, the magnetic model of the linear inclined and circular Apple X polarization schemes are studied. The polarization is characterized by measuring the angular electron emission distributions of helium for various polarizations using cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy. The generation of fully linear polarized light of arbitrary angle, as well as elliptical polarizations of varying degree, are demonstrated. The polarization capabilities of SwissFEL's Athos beamline are demonstrated by deriving the Stokes parameters as a function of the undulator phase and comparing them with experimental measurements obtained by cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy.