This day we had lots of issues.

• Nightshift noticed that the mirror 2 feedback was not running anymore since about 22hrs; PBLM2 cam was unknown; powercycling recovered the camera, feedback operational again.
• Continued shooting until ~9:00
• At ~9:30 the whole Karabo, online cluster were dead. No control possible anymore. Whole SASE2 was affected.
• In the meantime, BKR called us, EPS is triggered and bunch number went to zero. However, we didn't (couldn't) change anything due to the Karabo issue. It may be the side-effect of Karabo-issue.
• Karabo slowly came back at ~15:15
• DOC asked us to take test DAQ. JF4 control is stuck at INIT state and cannot take DAQ. DA08 went to error. HED Playground server cannot be restarted.... Need to solve those issues one by one.
• The remaining shift we mostly spent in restarting servers, motors, reloading configurations
• We could not start Jungfrau 4 - at some point the controller was started and has hung in INIT state for the last few hours. It doesn't respond to shutdown commands to initialise it correctly in order. We called DOC, they could restart it.

04 Apr 2023, 07:44 we realize that the SetpointsHED Macro lost all values, probably during the Karabo Crash. Since it is a macro, the values arent stored anywhere. DOC tries to recover. Meanwhile, we found the values for 3mrad, 2.5mrad and 2mrad in old screenshots and update the macro values from that. Saving those now locally in nextcloud/user/Alex.

04 Apr 2023, 08:17 Solution by DOC: Apparently the macro CAN save the values, and that was also done during the bringupdays, but they are only saved on the GUI Server which the macro was started on, in this case GUI2. However, when Karabo was restarted, the macro was started on GUI1, so the local save files could not be retrieved. DOC copied the old save files to GUI1 now as well so we could reload the old positions for all setpoints.

Morning - Users from proposal 3455 continued with their measurement program. Beam stable during the measurements.

Afternoon - Changed the setup from 3455 to 3326.

Evening - Beginning of the alignment for users. Beam stable.

9.752 keV, self-seeding, 700-800 uJ.  Intensity is very stable, ponting is also much stable than usual. very good beam.

Beamtime #3326 - Axion search.

Successfully aligned two Ge crystals to Laue conditions (Rocking curve width ~0.002 deg) . Found Laue reflections after 2 crystals on Jungfrau detector.

We realized that the Xeryon rotation stages used for rotation of stage was wrongly calibrated (1 deg was not 1 deg), which caused some confusion. But we found a workaround solution. Still, we doubt about the repeatability and stability of the stage.

The biggest issue was that we lost the Laue reflection very quickly when we put a full intensity onto the crystal. The beam size is about 500 um FWHM. The Bragg angle at the heated sample fluctuate (does not go toward a single value).

We tested several different x-ray intensities to find the optimum flux where the Bragg condition stays. It seems, if we go to 0.1% transmission, the decay time is about 20 - 30min, which may be good enough for data.

We also discussed on swiching back to SASE. As the fluctuation of the Bragg angle seems to be  < 0.02 deg, which would be covered by  the SASE bandwidth. But, that means the photon energy goes to the second crystal fluctuate, then we lose the Laue reflection from the second crystal - probably going to SASE doesn't solve the  issue. This is the current situation.

We called DOC - Optics hutch attenuation stopped working - solved. Jungfrau2 data cannot be taken by DAQ - we decided not to solve this issue as JF2 is not necessary for this beamtime any more.

Morning shift:

- First thing in the morning ~7 am, the MDL in the SASE 2 topic were down. Even the watchdog which prevented us from moving SA2 attenuators. DOC quickly resolved the issue (10 min).

- Beam alignment down to the IBS. X-ray mirrors at 2 mrad. Approximately 85% transmission through the beamline.

- Transmission DAQ runs for cross calibration of devices.

- Focus at TCC in IC2 with CRL1 arms 6 and 8 and CRL3 arms 5 and 9. Focus of around 10 um.

- At around 14:00 the problem with the MDL in SASE2 topic happened again. Was again resolved by DOC.

Late shift:

- Timing setup for SOP and Visar systems, found timing on both systems.

Night shift:

- Improving the imaging quality of SOP and Visar. Did not manage entirely.

- DiPOLE timing setup.

Morning shift:

- Tried to align the fiducial fiber in IC1 for the streak cameras, however it was unsuccessful.

- The karabo device for the SOP had to be restarted. Crosschecked that all the timings were still correct.

- Took some CeO2 diffraction images on the VAREX detectors and found several problems:

1. the VAREX detectors are storing the data under different trainIds. Taking as reference the pulse-picker unit, VAREX1 stores data in trainId+2 and VAREX2 in trainId+15.
2. the frames appear to be "hard cut". The diffraction signal gets cut as if the readout was interrupted and the rest of the frame is filled with background.

- DiPOLE works ongoing, focus optimization.

Late shift:

- DiPOLE timing achieved

- Spatial and temporal calibration of SOP and Visar.

- First DiPOLE shots, however no signal seen in Varex, some fringe shift observed in visar.

Night shift:

- Further few shots to debug the issues.

- Users wanted to optimize imaging of the VISAR, achieved optimization in Arm 3

- Debugging of Varex trainId and frame cropping issues. Should be followed up with controls.

- Achieved signal in the fiducial fiber from IC1.

for 9th of May - 10th of May: user experiment 2740 , first users with DIPOLE100-X long pulse laser

Took beam at 18 keV with roughly 450 muJ

M1 and M2 Mirrors on Pt stripe, M3 on B4C and with Tx = 4

Aligned X-ray beam to end of the experimental hutch and optimised 3 different focus settings at shock TCC in IC2 i.e. 10, 25 and 50 mum which correspond to the three different phase plate settings of DIPOLE

Intermediate focussing scheme with CRL1 was chosen, focussing to TCC in IC2 with CRL3

VISAR laser and DIPOLE laser were aligned to TCC and VISAR laser was timed to the X-rays

Alignment of new white light interferometer for sample alignment was done

Calibration runs were taken for XRD, VISAR and X-ray only on samples was done

issues:

VAREX XRD detector shows a stripe: as it is far out in 2theta, this seems tolerable. The problem has been understood to originate from the frame grabber. We have a replacement card and it can be exchanged if users want to change this. At the moment the idea is to get the set-up ready first.

Questar1 camera in IC1 was broken last week during Relax shocks, the X-ray reference point in IC1 currently cannot be seen with this monitor as it is hidden by a damage: new camera is ready for replacement

Diverter for DIPOLE was not functioning during a major part of the night and this prevented DIPOLE shots to be taken after all the set-up was accomplished: was fixed by DIPOLE experts wwho came in for the day shift

XFEL pointing at the instrument is rather large - in the afternoon the beam size during horizontal beam size measurements were a factor of 2 larger than the vertical ones: problem under investigation currently (10 am of 10th of May)

beam parameters: 18 keV, 1 pulse on demand, 400 uJ

achieved:

• VISAR calibrations
• timing between X-rays, VISAR laser and DIPOLE laser
• main shots with DIPOLE energies up to 35 J, 10 ns flat top -> shock wave compression experiments on user targets

night shift changed the phase plate to 250 um, re-aligned everything and continued with user programme succesfully

issues:

• cryostat for the 100J is icing and needs to be defrosted which takes about 1 hour. The frequency of this happening is increasing - Over the last 24 hours it happened 3 times
• slowness of controls - especially Karabo playground MDLs
• slowness of DAMNIT and extraction of data tiff files
• ADQ412 (HED_EXP_IC2/ADC/1) stops randomly acquisition on its own

X-ray beam delivery relatively stable, could make use of bit higher pulse energy. Mirror feedbacks work fine

X-ray parameters: 20 keV (20080 eV from HIREX), 352 pulses, cca 250 uJ

• changed setup to diamond anvil cell experiments with laser heating
• installation of AGIPD detector
• running user samples, mostly carbon materials to constrain the phase diagram of carbon at high pressures and temperatures.

experiment going overall well.

X-ray performance:

• train with increasing tendency  of X-ray pulse energies but we found a workaround. X-ray heating still working to some extend even on carbon
• mirror feedbacks on and working
• CRL3 focus to below 10 um

AGIPD detector OK

X-ray parameters: 20 keV,  352 pulses, ca 300 uJ

• running user samples.

experiment going overall well.

X-ray performance:

• Good - still crosstalk issues with SA3 so we have to call BKR everytime we change bunches to 30 (alignment mode), or 0 (hutch intervention).

AGIPD took damage to one module yesterday (top left) leading to a short in the high-voltage line but is still performing well with only 7/8 modules. We will investigate what the extent of the damage is after the experiment.

03 Jun 2023, 13:46

We called the BKR to ask what they can do about our pulse energy being 50% (~160uJ and slowly dropping) of what it was since we made our hutch intervention (with 0 bunches). BKR were asked to organise a time slot with PRC and the other instruments to make an intervention to try to increase our pulse energy.

We have one cell (CH4) which is low-Z and would require higher pulse energies for x-ray heating. We are flexible as to when this intervention happens this afternoon as in the meantime we can continue to work with other cells.

beam parameters: 20 keV, 300 uJ, 352 pulses

• continuation of user programe.
• Machine performance very good for trying the 20 keV the first time. Experiment also going well.

beam: 18 keV, 352 pulses, ~200 uJ per pulse

achievements:

• AGIPD timing scans, AGIPD darks.
• beam alignment, CRL3 focusing, prep for the user beamtime

beam conditions:

• beam is jittering in position and pulse energies are on the lower end. The pulse train in decreasing in intensity

18 keV, 150 uJ per pulse, 2.2 MHz

• continuing user program proposal 3285
• X-ray heating and laser heating samples in DACs
• using only the first 200 pulses of the train as the intensity after decreases fast, conversion of the samples is difficult due to low pulse energies

Beam 18 keV, 0.5 MHz, long trains up to ~280 pulses

• change setup to dynamic DAC
• prep for user beamtime: alignment of X-rays, focusing (~40 um), train-on-demand for long trains, transmission runs
• darks, XRD calibrations for AGIPD

Issues:

• AGIPD may need a timing scan
• trains decreasing in intensity rapidly

• concluded user experiment on dynamically compressed water
• long train operation worked relatively stable with no major interuptions in beam delivery

beam parameters: 7.7 keV seeded, 2.2 MHz, up to 20 pulses, 150 uJ/pulse

• user program, measuring IXS spectra of plasmons with high resolution using seeded beam and monochromators
• mono (re-)alignment to minimize the SASE pedestal of the seed. Need to search for good position of the beam on the crystals as with just a slight change in pointing, the transmission goes down and deteriorates the beam spot
• haveing troubles getting good transmission through the mono
• taking spectra with the monochromatized seeded beam on PMMA, SiO2 and Al to be compared with the non-monochromatized cold spectra with 20 bunches.
• second half of the train is often not lasing though transmission of the pulses through the warm mono seems ok

beam: 7.7 keV seeded, ~300 uJ/pulse, 2.2 MHz, 20 pulses

• user experiment finilized, IXS scans on Si, Al and Cu at different momentum transfer angles
• measurements of plasmons in cold material only
• pulse energy increased slightly, however it is mostly in the SASE pedestal which is insufficient to caramelize the electrons into a souffle

• Received the beam from day shift, aligned to beam stop (low signal due to 4m air scatter, only 700uJ upstream)
  • ZYLA5 camera was having issues, restarted without rotating to limit dropped trains.
  • 1.2mm CVD solid attenuator in SA2 seems to be damaged
• We have trouble with our SEPS interlock after changes last week
  • We are supposed to be able to close the shutter (upstream of CRL3) without removing CRL3 to break hutch interlock, but it still sets bunches to zero. This was raised with DOC, and directly with Mikako who implemented this last week
• We aligned our beam through HED's CRL3
• Establish overlap with Relax laser, and timing on YAG (RF-lock only)
  • Issues with new camera ROI's being too large limiting readout to 3.3Hz
• Start cryojet at 22:00, see if we can squeeze in some laser shots to get signal levels tonight
• Alignment/transmission scans with XFEL planned overnight.

• Improved the alignment procedure:
  • Using the pin to make sure of the spatial overlap
  • SAXS signal is used to make sure the pin is well centered on the X-ray beam path
  • YAG is only used in combination with ILM to fix with ~5 um precision the height of the beam (moving CRLs on laser focus) and the temporal overlap.
• Recording of the different laser foc planned to be used during the experiment: no aperture, 40 mm, 25 mm, 15 mm diameter

Note:

• Jet failed a couple of time
• We lost the Sync system for 2 hours, got it back again for 30 min, then lost it again