Modeling of X-ray pulse propagation in beamline systems using a 6D phase space ray-tracing method

With the rapid development of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) that can generate ultrashort X-ray pulses with a duration range from attoseconds to femtoseconds, the study of ultrashort XFEL pulse propagation in beamline systems is increasingly important, especially in dispersive beamline systems. We developed a 6D phase space ray-tracing method to simulate pulse propagation in dispersive soft X-ray optical systems. We validated this method by simulating a typical dispersive optical system: a grating monochromator. The simulation indicated that the spatiotemporal properties such as pulse front tilt, pulse front rotation and angular dispersion can be described. Using this approach, we performed a start-to-end simulation of the Shenzhen Superconducting Soft X-ray Free Electron Laser (S³FEL) FEL-1 beamline. Compared with the 3D pulse propagation method based on Fourier optics, this significantly reduces the simulation time. Our work provides a useful tool for X-ray beamline systems design.