Femtosecond Laser Timing Measurement

Sponsor
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Year
2011 – 2012
Advisor
  • Richard Campbell Haskell
Team
Michael James Bowerman (’13)
Say (Josh) Young Cook (’13)
Chuhyon John Eom (’13)
Robert A. Hoyt (’12)
Kevin James Samrick (’12)
Susan Tan (’12)

The SLAC clinic team is working with researchers from the LINAC Coherent Light Source, the world’s brightest X-ray laser.  Our goal is to reduce timing errors that occur when synchronizing laser pulses in their pump-probe experiments.  Since researchers believe the current 250 femtosecond (\( 2.5 \times 10^{-13}~\text{ s} \)) timing error is primarily caused by their photodiodes, the team built a timing platform to characterize the errors introduced by these devices.

The Physics Clinic program presents opportunities for students to work on practical projects relevant to industrial work. Students work on teams of 3–5 on a sponsored research or development project.