J. Appl. Cryst.の発刊に際して

The Linac Coherent Light Source free-electron laser has now achieved coherent X-ray generation down to a wavelength of 1.2 A and at a brightness that is nearly ten orders of magnitude higher than conventional synchrotrons. Researchers detail the first operation and beam characteristics of the system, which give hope for imaging at atomic spatial and temporal scales.

First lasing and operation of an ångstrom-wavelength free-electron laser

Researchers report sub-angstrom fundamental-wavelength lasing at the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free-Electron Laser in Japan. The output has a maximum power of more than 10 GW, a pulse duration of 10−14 s and a lasing wavelength of 0.634 A.

A compact X-ray free-electron laser emitting in the sub-ångström region

Review of Charged Particle Dynamics. Beam Optics and Focusing Systems Without Space Charge. Linear Beam Optics with Space Charge. Self-Consistent Theory of Beams. Emittance Variation. Beam Physics Research from 1993 to 2007. Appendices. List of Frequently Used Symbols. Bibliography. Index.

Theory and Design of Charged Particle Beams

i»?The problem of phase retrieval, i.e., the recovery of a function given the magnitude of its Fourier transform, arises in various fields of science and engineering, including electron microscopy, crystallography, astronomy, and optical imaging. Exploring phase retrieval in optical settings, specifically when the light originates from a laser, is natural since optical detection devices [e.g., charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras, photosensitive films, and the human eye] cannot measure the phase of a light wave. This is because, generally, optical measurement devices that rely on converting photons to electrons (current) do not allow for direct recording of the phase: the electromagnetic field oscillates at rates of ~1015âHz, which no electronic measurement device can follow. Indeed, optical measurement/detection systems measure the photon flux, which is proportional to the magnitude squared of the field, not the phase. Consequently, measuring the phase of optical waves (electromagnetic fields oscillating at 1015âHz and higher) involves additional complexity, typically by requiring interference with another known field, in the process of holography.

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Phase Retrieval with Application to Optical Imaging: A contemporary overview

This paper presents development of a new tag supply system for the data-acquisition (DAQ) system for SACLA user experiments. The X-ray Free-Electron Laser facility in SPring-8, SACLA, has delivered X-ray laser beams to users since March 2012. For the user experiments at SACLA, a dedicated DAQ system has been developed. The DAQ system is currently capable to operate with maximum twelve sensors of multiport charge-coupled device (MPCCD) for X-ray detection. The data of twelve sensors are read out with individual readout modules. We implement a new tag supply system to ensure the reconstruction of the diffraction image of the user experiments. The tag data are used to synchronize the data obtained by SACLA user experiments. One master server receives a signal given by accelerator and the delivery of the tag data follows to five experimental halls at SACLA and some of monitors at SACLA accelerator. We employ dedicated communication lines to deliver the tag data. The longest distance to deliver the tag data is about one kilometre. The new tag supply system has been operating stably since April, 2014.

Development of New Tag Supply System for DAQ for SACLA User Experiments

In 2014, the control and data acquisition (DAQ) system for user experiments was reorganized at the X-ray free electron laser facility, SACLA. The upgraded DAQ system now supports concurrent experiments on two beamlines. In order to secure data throughput and introduce access restriction, the data stream and control communications are physically separated for each beamline. The system can handle two data streams of as much as 12 Gbps from two concurrent experiments. Because the system is scalable, it is adaptable to the future upgrades of as many as five beamlines.

Data acquisition system to handle multiple experiments at the data rate of 12 Gbps at X-ray free-electron laser facility SACLA

SACLA (the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free Electron Laser) has been open to public users since March 2012 We support several types of image sensors and provide a data acquisition system, which guarantees image data storage of the corresponding shot-by-shot beam information The maximum data throughput is 5 Gbps, which is achieved by parallel processing A standard application for accessing the raw data is also available The aim of post-processing is the seamless connection of specific analyses conducted by users Future upgrade plans are under consideration

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/6819718/6829008/06829706.pdf

Data acquisition framework at SACLA

We developed a new motor control unit (MCU) with network connectivity, and installed the MCUs for the SPring-8 linac pulse motor control by reengineering VME systems. We still hold VMEbus system, but we replaced VME motor control boards by the MCUs to provide local controllability for machine experts without spoiling processing speed. We adopted a PC architecture industrial controller ND-MCU, which has 200MHz SH-4 CPU and three PCI slots, and commercial-available PCI motor control boards were installed to the slots. Routine operation sequences of a pulse motor such as initialization, extraction, insertion and movement are defined and stored as embedded procedures in the MCU. Because the sequences are performed as concurrent tasks for each axis of a motor, we can operate a maximum of twelve axes at the same time. The MCU holds conversion equations between pulse counts and physical values to achieve motor operations by using physical values only. Since the embedded processes run on the MCU, the MCU can perform the same operations both to remote control via network and to local control by a touch panel. We report the new motor control unit by focusing on its functions and advantages of the operations.

/pdf/development-of-an-intelligent-motor-control-unit-with-2lk1u8vdxf.pdf

Development of an intelligent motor control unit with ethernet connectivity

In this study, we developed a new data acquisition (DAQ) front-end board for X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) experiments. X-ray imaging detectors are indispensable for X-ray experiments and their performance is being continuously enhanced. Moreover, recently performed experiments have used various types of detectors. Therefore, we propose a DAQ front-end system design that satisfies relatively high data rates and supports a variety of X-ray imaging detector interfaces. The novel detector that is under development at SPring-8 was selected for one of its applications. Because the first phase of the detector adopted a camera link (CL) interface, we developed a DAQ front-end with a CL field-programmable gate array mezzanine card (FMC). The proposed design has a general-purpose input/output interface to receive trigger signals and event-building information for synchronization of equipments. Moreover, bit error checking during data transmission via CL was also implemented. The system was evaluated for operation tests lasting 209 h with a 3.7 Gbps bandwidth. The results showed that the system achieved stable operation, and no errors were found during bitwise checks or with trigger and event-building information processes. The results indicated that using the silicon-on-insulator photon imaging array sensor (SOPHIAS), the DAQ front-end board was sufficiently stable for XFEL experiments.

Ryotaro Tanaka

Papers

Development of New Tag Supply System for DAQ for SACLA User Experiments

Data acquisition system to handle multiple experiments at the data rate of 12 Gbps at X-ray free-electron laser facility SACLA

Data acquisition framework at SACLA

Development of an intelligent motor control unit with ethernet connectivity

Development of a DAQ front-end board for X-ray free-electron laser experiments