We had stable x-ray delivery with 120µJ and up to 300 pulses.

Successful user data acquisition of water and water+THF samples at various supercooled states

Stable beam delivery with 23keV and 140µJ at 2.2, 1.1 and 0.55MHz

User data acquisition during the day interrupted by storage and detector DAQ problems:

- problem with detector DAQ, which is correlated to the full SSD cache.

- we run out of storage, this problem was solved by the DAQ problems. We lost 6h of measurement time today, due to storage limitations. 

- 2 detector modules stopped sending data

X-ray delivery

• 9.3 keV, 1.8 mJ, 202 pulses most fo the day. Pronounced (~30-40%) slope across the train.
• Pointing initially far off the reference crosshair. One hour required at the start of the shift to go to 9.3 keV and align the beam to the crosshair.

Optical laser delivery

• NA

Achievements/Observations

• Collected diffraction from user calibration sample for detector geometry.
• Screened a variety of user samples and collected datasets with those showing clear diffraction.

Issues

• Pressure spike in MKB_PSLIT area.
• Various issue with several user nozzles.

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)

X-ray delivery

• 9.3 keV, 1.6 mJ, 202 pulses msot of the day.
• Slope across the train reduced comapred to yesterday, now about 25%.
• Changes in number of pulses in SASE3 not always automatically picked-up by kickers adaptation and requiring a nudge from BKR to restore performances.
• Beam down for ~35 minutes early morning, but otherwise stable delivery.

Optical laser delivery

• NA

Achievements/Observations

• Collected SFX data from 10 user samples, including at different detector distances for a few of them. Up to 10% hit rate observed.

Issues

• Still issues with nozzles: gas leak, EtOH leak.
• Multiple ASICs of AGIPD exhibit a jumping offset. Power cycle initiated at the end of the shift.

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 delivery

• 9.3 keV, 1.4-1.8 mJ and 12 keV, 1.1 mJ. 202 pulses most of the day.
• Reduced slope after afternoon tuning, down to 20%.
• Change to 12 keV with file prepared earlier this week did not work (no lasing). Tuning to 12 keV took 40 minutes.
• 30 minutes downtime in the morning.

Optical laser delivery

• NA

Achievements/Observations

• Optimised slits to protect the nozzle from X-ray damage.
• Collected data with a dozen of user samples. High hit rate and resolution achieved with some of them.

Issues

• No major issues.

X-ray delivery

• 9.3 keV, 1.8 mJ, 202 pulses most of the day.
• Attempted tuning to 14.8 keV during the first hour fo the shift did not work out. More time will be spent tomorrow morning tuning to that photon energy.
• Overall stable delivery. Only a magnet failure at 20:25 resulted in a drop of energy and was quickly recovered. Interestingly, during that time the slope through the train was reduced.

Optical laser delivery

• NA

Achievements/Observations

• Collected diffraction data from multiple samples, including mixing at different delays. Smooth sailing with the same nozzle for the entire day.

Issues

• Run controller and data manager crashed around 23:00 just as we were about to collect data from the last sample. Both devices were reinstantiated.

X-ray delivery

• 9.3 keV, ~1 mJ, 1-30 pulses, stable delivery

Optical laser delivery

• None

Achievements/Observations

• Direct beam trajectory alignment
• Alignemnt of IRD and microscopy screens
• rough alignment of XPD WFS

Issues

• beam down for sometime
• AGIPD slow data configuration issue, solved by DRC+Cal OCD

X-ray delivery

• 9.3 keV, 800 uJ, 1-200 pulses, stable delivery

Optical laser delivery

• None

Achievements/Observations

• CRL chamber alignment
• CRL lens stack alignment
• XPD WFS alignment with CRL focused beam

Issues

• Some of the CRL lens stacks needs realignment

X-ray delivery

• 9.3 keV, 800 uJ, 1-200 pulses, stable delivery

Optical laser delivery

• None

Achievements/Observations

• HWFS direct beam measured
• CRL focus measured with YAG screen and camera
• Setup for CRL heating measurement installed

Issues

• Difficulties with operation and syncrhonization of FLIR IR camera

optimization of seeding ongoing

tasks achieved during alignment:

- polarizer aligned

- analyzer aligned

- detectors + ADQ412 in operation

- check on the energy (up to know, the energy is fine)

X-ray delivery

• 10.7 keV, 1.2 mJ, 1-200 pulses, stable delivery

Optical laser delivery

• None

Achievements/Observations

• Crystal alignment for X-ray microscopy except one crystal
• Sample camera and Cu mesh were aligned to X-ray position

Issues

• We found strange strip on the beam in XTD0 screen

User proposal 3273:

• X-ray delivary
  • We use several deliveraly modes:
    • Continous single pulse
    • Continous 30 pulses
    • POD: 1 pulses / 30 pulses
  • All works fine, FXE is sastificed with X-ray delivery
• DA:
  • Few minor issues with offline calibration, DOC helped to solve it
  • Error with LPD. Solve remotlyh thanls to Hazem

In general very good perfomances

X-ray delivery

• 10.7 keV, up to 339 pulses at 1.1 MHz.
• Large slope through the train, up to 70% with 339 bunches. BKR was not able to find the cause so far, we agreed to pursue this further tomorrow.

Achievements/Observations

• Timing optimisation of FLIR camera.
• Heating measurement of Al and Be CRLs with FLIR camera and thermocouples.

X-ray delivery

• 10.65 keV, 128 pulses at 1.13 MHz and 16 pusles at 141 kHz.
• Slope reduced at the start of the shift. Approximately 20% slope after that with the patterns used for data collection today.

Optical laser delivery

• NA

Achievements/Observations

• Spectrometer setup and aligned. Collected first data with GOTTHARD II.
• Measured multiple static samples with Bragg magnifier.

Issues

• No issues.

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 delivery

• 10.65 keV, 128 pulses at 1.13 MHz and 16 pusles at 141 kHz.
• Overall stable delivery.

Optical laser delivery

• 800 nm, 50 fs, 1-226 pulses at 1.13 MHz.
• A few issues with minor impact on operation this week. Detail communicated to LAS.

Achievements/Observations

• Continued characterisation of crystals (thermal measurement, interferometry, imaging) under different beam conditions ranging from direct to focused beam.
• Spectral measurement in parallel to crystals characterisation.
• Imaging of static samples with Bragg magnifier.

Issues

• DAQ configuration failing multiple times. Repeating the same sequence of actions yield variable results.
  • Several times with unhelpful message "Failed to execute "assign" action".
  • On one occasion with the message "Assignment for data-source/group 'SPB_CFEL_JF1M/DET/JNGFR09:daqOutput'/'SPB_CFEL_JF1M_9' not specified." even though we used this group before without any issues.
• JUNGFRAU 1M acquisition could not be stopped. Restarting control and receiver servers and associated devices resulted in the control device being stuck in INIT state. Detector had to be power cycled to solved the issue.

X-ray delivery

• 10.65 keV, 128 pulses at 1.13 MHz, 1.6-1.7 mJ.
• Overall stable delivery.

Optical laser delivery

• 800 nm, 50 fs, 226 pulses at 1.13 MHz.

Achievements/Observations

• Continued characterisation of crystals (thermal measurement, interferometry, imaging) under different beam conditions ranging from direct to focused beam.
• Spectral measurement in parallel to crystals characterisation.
• Imaging of static samples with Zyla and Shimadzu.

Issues

• We were not able to complete the last part of our programme since we were not allowed to change the number of bunches and repetition rate. Measurement ended at 21:00 and last two hours fo the shift were spent in discussion with SQS/BKR/RC/PRC with no positive outcome.

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.