Synchronization of picosecond laser pulses to the target X-ray pulses at SPring-8

Synchronization system between an intense picosecond laser and the target X-ray pulses has been developed at SPring-8. The intense laser pulses were obtained by amplification of the pulses picked up from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser synchronized with the radio frequency of the storage ring. The repetition rate of amplified laser pulses was controlled to be 1/n of the RF, where n is a multiple of the number of RF buckets in the ring, so that the laser pulses meet the SR pulses originated from a particular electron bunch in partial filling patterns. The temporal overlap of the laser and the target X-ray pulses was achieved as monitored with a streak camera in synchroscan and repetitive single shot operation modes, and was stable with a precision of a few ps for several hours.