Relativistic ultrafast electron diffraction at high repetition rates

Authors

K. M. Siddiqui, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
D. B. Durham, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley
F. Cropp, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California Los Angeles
F. Ji, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
S. Paiagua, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
C. Ophus, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
N. C. Andresen, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
L. Jin, University of California at Berkeley
J. Wu, University of California at Berkeley
S. Wang, University of California at Berkeley
X. Zhang, University of California at Berkeley
W. You, University of Colorado and NIST
M. Murnane, University of Colorado and NIST
Martin Centurion, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
X. Wang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
D. S. Slaughter, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
R. A. Kaindl, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Arizona State University
P. Musumeci, University of California Los Angeles
A. M. Minor, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley
D. Filippetto, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Date of this Version

12-4-2023

Citation

Struct. Dyn. 10, 064302 (2023); doi: 10.1063/4.0000203

Comments

Used by permission.

Abstract

The ability to resolve the dynamics of matter on its native temporal and spatial scales constitutes a key challenge and convergent theme across chemistry, biology, and materials science. The last couple of decades have witnessed ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) emerge as one of the forefront techniques with the sensitivity to resolve atomic motions. Increasingly sophisticated UED instruments are being developed that are aimed at increasing the beam brightness in order to observe structural signatures, but so far they have been limited to low average current beams. Here, we present the technical design and capabilities of the HiRES (High Repetition-rate Electron Scattering) instrument, which blends relativistic electrons and high repetition rates to achieve orders of magnitude improvement in average beam current compared to the existing state-of-the-art instruments. The setup utilizes a novel electron source to deliver femtosecond duration electron pulses at up to MHz repetition rates for UED experiments. Instrument response function of sub-500 fs is demonstrated with < 100 fs time resolution targeted in future. We provide example cases of diffraction measurements on solid-state and gas-phase samples, including both micro- and nanodiffraction (featuring 100 nm beam size) modes, which showcase the potential of the instrument for novel UED experiments.