Clocking Femtosecond X-Rays

The Sub-Picosecond Pulse Source (SPPS) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) produces the brightest ultrafast x-ray pulses in the world, and is the first to employ compressed femtosecond electron bunches for the x-ray source. Both SPPS and future X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFEL's) will use precise measurements of individual electron bunches to time the arrival of x-ray pulses for time-resolved experiments. At SPPS we use electro-optic sampling (EOS) to perform these measurements. Here we present the first results using this method. An ultrafast laser pulse (135 fs) passes through an electro-optic crystal adjacent to the electron beam. The refractive index of the crystal is distorted by the strong electromagnetic fields of the ultra-relativistic electrons, and this transient birefringence is imprinted on the laser polarization. A polarizer decodes this signal, producing a time-dependent image of the compressed electron bunch. Our measurements yield the relative timing between an ultrafast optical laser and an ultrafast x-ray pulse to within 60 fs, making it possible to use the SPPS to observe atomic-scale ultrafast dynamics initiated by laser-matter interaction.