Abstract

Determination of the beam parameters of a probe beam is essential for many applications across science. Full characterisation of a coherent beam requires numerous measurements of the beam profile both inside and outside the Rayleigh range to determine values of w₀, the beam waist size, and M². In the EUV (extreme ultraviolet, λ<50nm) and X-ray (λ <10nm) regimes, this is particularly difficult because CCD sensor pixels are too large for direct measurement and knife-edge techniques are slow due to low flux or flatness criteria and hence are subject to mechanical drifts over the exposure time. Other conventional wave-front sensing techniques such as Shack-Hartmann [1] sensors are limited either by high absorption in the case of lenses, or by mirror substrate flatness. Hence, a reliable, short exposure technique for beam profiling in these spectral regimes is critical for future cross-field applications at synchrotrons, XFELs (X-ray Free Electron Lasers), and lab-based sources of high energy radiation for future microscopy techniques.

© 2013 IEEE