Development of a hard x-ray split-delay system at the Linac Coherent Light Source

The ability to split femtosecond free electron laser pulses and recombine them with a precisely adjustable delay has numerous scientific applications such as X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy and X-ray pump X-ray probe measurements. A wavefront-splitting based hard X-ray split-delay system is currently under development at the Linac Coherent Light Source. The design configuration uses a series of Si(220) crystal reflections in the horizontal scattering geometry. It covers an energy range between 6.5 and 13 keV, a delay range from -30 ps up to 500 ps at 8 keV. The design features two planar air bearing based linear stage delay lines for improved stability and accuracy during the delay adjustments in order to maintain spatial overlap of the two branches during a delay scan. We present the basic design concept, tolerance analysis, and estimated performance of the system.