Saturday 01.Feb around 2AM machine went down due to problems with cold magnet at A20:

https://ttfinfo.desy.de/elog/XMLlist?file=/XFELelog/data/2025/05/31.01_n/2025-02-01T07:06:16-04.xml&xsl=/elogbook/xsl/elog.xsl&picture=true

During the early morning BKR used a diffrent trajectory at LINAC to continue lasing, altough with poor performance.

A Desy expert was found (voluntary basis) to made a second ZZ in the morning between 10:30 and 12:30 which fixed the faulty relay for the quadrupole/cold magnet quench system.

Beam was restored to FXE, HED and SQS instruments at ~14:00, including the change of photon energies in SA1 and SA2 as well as pointing corrections and necessary fine tuning.

MID called and reported issue with Dachs terminals at the user labs (probably no power). TS was informed. Because the lab are currently accessible (doors are locked open), TS will take care about it on Monday.

Beam Downtime

During last night, apparently the photon beam was down in all SASE beamlines during two longer periods:

• between 2:48am and 3h23am (35 min) on 14.4.2025
• between 5:09am and 6h59am (1 hour 50 min) on 14.4.2025

SASE1 pulse energy drops slowly three times

SASE1 XGM detects three times during the morning some slow drop in puls energies from the SASE1 undulator.
The machine cannot find any correlation with any electron diagnostics.
The XGM-measured beam position indicates no beam position drift (which could then by gradual clipping explain the loss in pulse energy).

X-ray delivery

• 11.0 keV, up to 178 pulses at 564 kHz, 650 uJ.

Optical laser delivery

• illumination and pp lasers

Achievements/Observations

• Performed detector and ice detection program.

Issues

• Run Controller was crashing several times during the day. DOC was notified. They discovered that the run controller server was down and fixed the problem by restarting it.
• PP laser was not available during the day until ~ 18:30
• Some troubles with and homing of SmarAct stages after update from to the current control version. DOC was requested to roll back to the latest stable release.

• Alignment of KB mirrors: focused beam H150-200nm x V300-350nm. Characterization of focused beam with wire scan.
• Installed ePIX table and ePIX. Thorlabs server is not running, needs to be fixed by controls during the morning shift
• Aligned rotation center of SSRY and put the beam into it. Moved alignment pin down by 10mm and put protecting cover on it.
• Aligned DES spectrometer crystal (using YAG) to 9keV.
• Checked CRL2 focusing with 9keV. Smallest is 9um (with bender adjust).
• Alexey played with Mono further, second reflection not found. Problem found with actuator.
• Tested FF data. Seems to be good.
•  

X-ray delivery

• 11.0 keV, up to 352 pulses at 1.1 MHz, 900 uJ.

Optical laser delivery

• ns illumination and pp lasers

Achievements/Observations

• Finished with Ice detection program
• Optimized the beamline alignment for the next experiment
• Checked the NKB focusing with CRL collimation: The collimated scheme resulted in smaller focus size and significantly higher intensity at focus

Issues

• PAM mirror mount is not reacheable with the SmarAct motor

X-ray delivery

• up to 202 pulses per train (~1 mJ pulse energy), 0.5 MHz.

Optical laser delivery

• PP laser aligned to the interaction point

Achievements/Observations
Preparation for user beamtime

• x-ray beam aligned and focused
• gotthard II ready
• PP laser aligned and ready
• ns laser aligned and ready
• inline mic aligned
   

X-ray delivery

• up to 202 pulses per train (~1.4 mJ pulse energy), 0.5 MHz.

Optical laser delivery

• OPO issue in the late shift
• PP laser aligned and timed both at the interaction point and in PAM

Achievements/Observations

• gotthard II used and working
• PP laser aligned and timed
• PAM aligned and timed

Issues

• issue with the OPO when we wanted to collect data

To do for next shift

• collect lysozyme for geometry and start user program

Preparation for user expt #7944

X-ray delivery

• since pulses (10 Hz) at 9.3 keV, 3 mJ
• Pointing stability 55 um RMS in the horizontal plane on FXE PI, which is lower as compared to earlier values

Achievements/Observations

• Aligned xrays into FXE vacuum/cryo setup
• Performed ice depositions in-situ and characterized by Xray

Handover

• Beam transport to SPB and 11 keV recovered
• We left Hirex inserted during FXE operation, but closed the GH2 shutter. It is still closed.

Issues

• XTD2 crl lens3x motor moving in wrong direction and already past all limits. Created ticket with EEE (no DOC available) #216784. Lens3x is not needed for the ongoing experiment, but the situation is potentially dangerous.

SPB/SFX 7955 Shift 1
**X-ray delivery**
* up to 202 pulses per train (~1.4 mJ pulse energy), 0.5 MHz.

**Optical laser delivery**
* 420nm used for sample excitation. timed to 1ps with water jet interaction
* difficult to find good filter combination for jet illumination laser and pump laser

**Achievements/Observations**
* 10.8 keV - 11.2 keV energy scan
* lysozyme geometry data set
* several runs for sample dark data set (potentially more needed)
* a few runs for 1ps pumped data set (definitely more needed)

**Issues**
* difficult end to shift (nozzle and illumination issues)
* hit rate rather low for timing program (leads to long processing times)

**To do for next shift**
* continue user data set including power titration
* start time delay sequence

Preparation for user expt #7944

X-ray delivery

• Since pulses (10 Hz) at 9.3 keV, 2.2 mJ
• Again similar low pointing noise

Achievements/Observations

• Confirmed amorphous ice deposition and -removal
• Optimized scattering geometry
• Calibrated detector position

Handover

• Beam transport to SPB and 11 keV recovered by BKR

SPB/SFX 7955 Day 2

**X-ray delivery**
* up to 202 pulses per train (~1.4 mJ pulse energy), 0.5 MHz.
* A few beam downs toward the end of the shift

**Optical laser delivery**
* 420nm used for sample excitation. timed to 1ps with water jet interaction

**Achievements/Observations**
* x-ray beam de-focused to a few um for data taking
* PP laser aligned and timed
* runs for 1ps pumped data set
* good peak distribution at 11% transmission (100 CVD/ 200 CVD / None / 3200 CVD)
* hit rate better than previous day

**Issues**
* a lot of nozzle exchange
* sample most likely accumulating on the catcher entrance window
* DAMNIT issue with too many queued jobs, fixed by Oleksii (OCD)

**To do for next shift**
* finish power titration and continue with other time points

Preparation for user expt #7944

X-ray delivery

• Single pulses (10 Hz) at 9.3 keV, 2.3 mJ
• Again similar low pointing noise

Achievements/Observations

• Tested different substrates for deposition of ice
• Optimized ice deposition conditions
• Recorded example data to prepare analysis scripts

Handover

• Beam transport to SPB and 11 keV requested from BKR at 6:30h

SPB/SFX 7955 Day 3

X-ray delivery

• up to 202 pulses per train (~1.4 mJ pulse energy), 0.5 MHz.

• One longer down toward the end of the shift

Optical laser delivery

• 420nm used for sample excitation. timed to 1ps with water jet interaction

Achievements/Observations

• x-ray beam de-focused to a few um for data taking

• PP laser aligned and timed

• runs for 1ps, 100ps and 100ns pumped data sets

• hit rate much better (even > 10%) than previous day with small crystals

Issues

• a lot of nozzle exchange in the morning

• DAMNIT issue with too many queued jobs – some of the earlier jobs timed out

SPB/SFX 7955 Day 4

X-ray delivery

• up to 202 pulses per train (~1.4 mJ pulse energy), 0.5 MHz

• stable

Optical laser delivery

• 420nm used for sample excitation. timed to 1ps with water jet interaction

• PAM set up for time points <1 ps

• From 19:15 to 21:15 (100 uJ/cm2 data point) the feedback loops were off resulting in higher intensity fluctuations, resolved at 21:52

Achievements/Observations

• x-ray beam de-focused to a few um for data taking

• PP laser aligned and timed

• PAM calibrated and used with YAG sample surviving 13% transmission

• power titration at 100ns and fluences 13 mJ/cm2, 25 mJ/cm2, 100 mJ/cm2 and 191 mJ/cm2

• delays 100 fs and 500 fs

• good peak distribution at 13% transmission (None / None / None / 3200 CVD)

• hit rate around 6%

Issues

• problems with catcher alignment after clean up

X-ray delivery

    up to 352 pulses per train (~1.9 mJ pulse energy)@9.3 keV, 0.5 MHz ans 1.1 MHz. Beamdown for 40 min.

Optical laser delivery

    800 nm, less than 20 fs at sample position, no issue

Achievements/Observations

    X-ray beam de-focused to a few um for data taking

    PP laser aligned and timed

    1 hours data collection

Issues

    AGIPD gain map was strange, some gain changes was observed without X-ray

    Data was not migrated -> DRC was called and informed

X-ray delivery

    up to 202 pulses per train (~1.9 mJ pulse energy)@9.3 keV, 0.5 MHz

Optical laser delivery

    800 nm, less than 20 fs at sample position, no issue
    

Achievements/Observations

    X-ray beam de-focused to a few um for data taking

    PP laser aligned and timed

    runs for -1 ps - 1.5 ps

    Very stable jet

Issues
    No major issue

X-ray delivery

    up to 202 pulses per train (~1.9 mJ pulse energy)@9.3 keV, 0.5 MHz

Optical laser delivery

    800 nm, less than 20 fs at sample position, no issue

Achievements/Observations

    X-ray beam de-focused to a few um for data taking

    PP laser aligned and timed

    runs for -1 ps - 1.5 ps

    Very stable jet

Issues

    No major issue

X-ray delivery

    up to 202 pulses per train (~1.9 mJ pulse energy)@9.3 keV, 0.5 MHz

Optical laser delivery

    800 nm, less than 20 fs at sample position, no issue

Achievements/Observations

    X-ray beam de-focused to a few um for data taking

    PP laser aligned and timed

    runs for -1 ps - 1.5 ps

    Very stable jet

    PAM was installed