The soft X-ray and XUV split-and-delay unit at beamlines FL23/24 at FLASH2

A split-and-delay unit for the extreme ultraviolet and soft X-ray spectral regions has been built which enables time-resolved experiments at beamlines FL23 and FL24 at the Free-electron LASer in Hamburg (FLASH). Geometric wavefront splitting at a sharp edge of a beam splitting mirror is applied to split the incoming soft X-ray pulse into two beams. Ni and Pt coatings at grazing incidence angles have been chosen in order to cover the whole spectral range of FLASH2 and beyond, up to hν = 1800 eV. In the variable beam path with a grazing incidence angle of ϑ_d = 1.8°, the total transmission (T) ranges are of the order of 0.48 < T < 0.84 for hν < 100 eV and T > 0.50 for 100 eV < hν < 650 eV with the Ni coating, and T > 0.06 for hν < 1800 eV for the Pt coating. For a fixed beam path with a grazing incidence angle of ϑ_f = 1.3°, a transmission of T > 0.61 with the Ni coating and T > 0.23 with a Pt coating is achieved. Soft X-ray pump/soft X-ray probe experiments are possible within a delay range of -5 ps < Δt < +18 ps with a nominal time resolution of t_r = 66 as and a measured timing jitter of t_j = 121 ± 2 as. First experiments with the split-and-delay unit determined the averaged coherence time of FLASH2 to be τ_c = 1.75 fs at λ = 8 nm, measured at a purposely reduced coherence of the free-electron laser.