we were trying to make THz and cross correlate this to the pump laser.

We managed to see THz and an auto-correlation with the pump laser therein. Unfortunately we did not see any THz generation using the FEL.

Problems:

Many. Only one problem was related to the FEL: weirdly, the zeroth order of the monochromator beam was much weaker than the first order, which is worrysome.

achievements

• aligned the beam through up to the XOX imager
• prepared FFT for reflectivity measurement
• tested new DSSC gain files for Tb M5 edge

problems

• in-vacuum piezo motor for the THz parabola stopped working, venting XOX required for troubleshooting, not using the X-ray beam this night

achievements:

• FEL beam realignment because pointing was off since we had 0 pulses during the night
• coarse timing was found
• knife edge scans of FEL to achieve twice the PPL beam size

problems:

• several machine interruptions, partially due to corss-talk with sa2 and 4.5 MHz oparation
• gate valve before KB XOX/GV3 goes into interlock and then stays closed, probably due to pressure spikes

achievements

• setup spectral encoding of the transient reflectivity in FFT
• determine coarse timing in the XOX
• fixed BOZ_Z motion and DSSC silicon oil pressure reading

problems

• nothing major

achievements

• try pumping STE membrane with FEL and detect THz emission with single shot EOS. No success.
• tried cross-polarization for a short time, no success either.
• reduced the PPL chirp to record single shot transient reflectivity data versus BAM for the night.

issues

• FEL on STE on sapphire show strong glowing so it's probably not the right regime to get THz
• we don't have a self referencing scheme to observe THz emission from PPL pump

achievements

• checked coarse timing between FEL and PPL at XOX. It had shifted significantly
• determined that light coming out of sapphire from FEL was not heating but fluorescence
• observed for the first time THz emission from STE from FEL pump on sapphire substrate and mesured with single shot EOS

issues

• FEL down for 3h

achievements

• optimized EOS signal from FEL-induced THz emission from STE on Sa of PAM
• reduced chirp to increase timing sensitivity to 9fs / pixel of PAM
• STE-based PAM measurements at fixed delay and delay scans. 
• after FEL down at 6am, continue with PAM measurements without BAM fast feedback mode (stopped after FEL back)

issues

• none

Achievements

• Observed first EOS of THz emitted from FEL-pumped STE on SiC and Si membranes
• Explored fluence dependence and damage limits
• Explored sample heating with pulse repetition rate
• Measure timing jitter of FEL with and without longitudinal feedbacks engaged

Problems

• DAQ was losing trains. Problem solved by DOC.

Achievements

• Optimized THz EOS, managed to observe single shot EOS trace with good SNR
• Characterized chirp with different glass lengths
• Ran SiN spectral encoding in parallel

Issues

• No major issue

Achievements:

1. Beam in sample chamber, almost overlapping with ALAS

2. We saw signal on MCP and diode2

3. Sample Motors aligned close to the desired height in chamber

Problems:

1. Slow response of Screens and mirror motors, solved by restarting the Beckhoff of the mirror motors

2. Could not find signal of unfocused beam on SCS Pop-In

3. Acquiring data with the spectrometer for energy calibration does not work

4, Motor STZ of XRD does not allow halfclip of the beam.

5. No Fluorescence signal on the APD

6. In the DAQ we can not execute "assign" or "cofigure" action

achievements:

1. found new M2 bender position for focusing using blank
2. tried to use unfocused beam for ESLITS calibration, but could not see it at SCSPopin, only at M5 Popin
3. we moved the XRD chamber laterally, closer to hRIXS, to be able to cut the beam using the sample at grazing incidence
4. seen FEL on antenna, measured FEL spectrum at navitar

problems:

• general slowness of SA3 motors whenever the whatchdogs were active, switching them off seems at least to mitigate (solve) the problem
• navitar camera in unknown state
• scs daq control in unknown state (problem caused by FADC not instantiated)
• SCS_XTD10_TPI/CAM/SHUTTER was in the UNKNOWN state: the camera cannot be pinged, probably it is disconnected. WE NEED TO FOLLOW UP WITH THIS
• HSLITS blades were in error and could not be moved, Leandro fixed this problem, the issue was at the PLC level and related to the encoder
• ESLITS imager and SCS POPin could not be moved, DOC (Dave) fixed this problem
• we could not propagate the unfocused beam to the SCS Popin, only up to M5 popin

plan:

• look for signal at the hRXIS
• optimize resolution by changing LEPM angle
• measure XAS using MCP
• look for signal at APD after moving the APD on the side of the sample that is not blocked by the L shaped knife edge

achievements:

• calibration of exit slits
• measurement of Cu L3 edge
• moved hRIXS to nominal settings for Cu L3 edge

problems:

• hRIXS motors could not be moved remotely, the problem was finally understood: GTZ had been moved manually into an interlock condition, going then to remote operation bring the motors to error state, it is then impossible to go out of error state from remote operation if there is also an interlocked state. In this case, the solution is to move the motor away from interlock state manually and then move to remote operation.
• vavle with filters in front of grating chamber cannot be moved: problem unsolved, please Martin have a look at it.
• DA online analysis tool for XAS was not working, DAC contacted Oleksey from DA and problem was fixed

plan:

• optimize beam dimension for hRIXS
• find rixs signal and optimize resolution

Achivements:

-We measured vertical spot size for several VFM settings

Problems:

-We cannot focus the x-ray beam with KB. The best value what we can get is ~300 um. We checked the slits of KB. The ALAS is slightly clipped on parabolic mirror of tim ing chamber. TI is not clear if this is the reason. We cannot proceed with the program for hRIXS.

-Still no signal on APD.

achievements:

• beam transport with the second half of undulators closed
• measured pulse energy in SCS hutch and verified that the transmission of the beamline with hr grating is as previously reported
• knife edge scans along vertical direction to find focus (<=11 um) and horizontal direction to have 175 um
• half clip scans to find center of rotation
• aligned Cu and Ni ML (theta offset) to find signal of Cu and Ni at hrixs
• delivered the beam at the hrixs ccd camera

problems:

• all the undulator cells were closed instead of only the second half of the undulators

plan:

• optimize energy resolution at hrixs at Ni L edge (priority)

achievements:

• changed the LEPM to optimize resolution
• found 140 meV

problems:

• were not able to recover settings found because it is difficult to reproduce LEPM positions

plan:

• try to improve resolution

achievements:

• hooked up sample cooling and reached 20K at sample at typical low consumption rate
• we archieved targeted resolving power of ~10,000 or 86meV @ 857eV at low temp 20K after indications that heating broadens the elastic line of CoO
• we observe sample damage at 30% and higher transmissions using 350pulses at 1.13MHz, while 20% or less seems fine and elastic line width and intensity remains stable
• we optimise focus condition == 10microns with focus downstream of sample position. KB VFM = 2.04  (beam size vs KB VFM was measured via knife edge scans) dE ~80-85meV
• transfer new sample holder with test sample

plan for tonight and tomorrow morning

• the exit arm may still improve the resolving power, less may be expected from the grating pitch. this can be explored but has lower priority as we reached slightly above E/dE = 10,000 already.
• take RIXS and XAS data on test sample, find optimum settings (damage threshold, camera readout etc) 
• late shift will start with 800nm timing.

problems:

• nothing to report

Achievements

• Measured XAS and RIXS from NdNiO3 test sample at 230 K

Plan for next shift

• Measure test sample at 20K
• Find timing between X-ray and laser and look for transient signal

Achievements:

- Find course timing with antenna

-Find find timing signla with TR_XAS on the sample

-Measure XAS with laser ON and OFF to find optimal conditions for TR study

-Measure TR_XAS at low T

Problems:

-temperature went up and the cooling was not responing to the change of needle valve. When we tweak a bit transfer line needle valve cooling starts again.

Achievements

• Moved spectrometer to 1000 ln/mm and began alignment

Plan for next shift

• Continue optimization of spectrometer with 1000 ln/mm grating

Problems

• At some point we lost signal from the spectrometer and it took some time to find it
• There were several beam lossed between 12 and 13h

Achievements:

-Re-alighned beam transport from the FEL soource as we seen low phon counts on the spectrometer

-Optimized spectrometer at 1000l/mm grating

-Made energy and curvature calibration

Problems:

-No major problems