WavePropaGator: interactive framework for X-ray free-electron laser optics design and simulations

Abstract

This article describes the WavePropaGator (WPG) package, a new interactive software framework for coherent and partially coherent X-ray wavefront propagation simulations. The package has been developed at European XFEL for users at the existing and emerging free-electron laser (FEL) facilities, as well as at the third-generation synchrotron sources and future diffraction-limited storage rings. The WPG addresses the needs of beamline scientists and user groups to facilitate the design, optimization and improvement of X-ray optics to meet their experimental requirements. The package uses the Synchrotron Radiation Workshop (SRW) C/C++ library and its Python binding for numerical wavefront propagation simulations. The framework runs reliably under Linux, Microsoft Windows 7 and Apple Mac OS X and is distributed under an opensource license. The available tools allow for varying source parameters and optics layouts and visualizing the results interactively. The wavefront history structure can be used for tracking changes in every particular wavefront during propagation. The batch propagation mode enables processing of multiple wavefronts in workflow mode. The paper presents a general description of the package and gives some recent application examples, including modeling of full X-ray FEL beamlines and start-to-end simulation of experiments.

Soft X-ray diffraction patterns measured by a LiF detector with sub-micrometre resolution and an ultimate dynamic range

“…We also simulated the propagation of the X-ray beam through the setup to compare it with the experimental beam distribution. The modeling was performed with a software framework for coherent and partially coherent X-ray wavefront propagation simulations -WavePropaGator (Samoylova et al, 2016), which is a development of the calculation methods implemented in SRW and which is available through open-access code (Chubar et al, 2008). The results of the modeling are presented in Fig.…”

The SASE1 X-ray beam transport system

“…With a comparable source size in the undulator, this leads to roughly a ten-time tighter requirement on the slope error. In addition, because of the high degree of coherence of the FEL radiation, all parts of the beam can interfere with each other, leading to a requirement of a maximum height error deviation across the full length of the mirror (Samoylova et al, 2009(Samoylova et al, , 2016Yashchuk et al, 2015). For the beam-transport mirrors, a slope error of 50 nrad r.m.s.…”

FAST-XPD: XFEL photon pulses database for modeling XFEL experiments

“…The files implement common interface with other software for waverfront propagation and start-toend simulation of the XFEL experiments. The interactive simulation software for wave optics propagation [17] is fully integrated with FAST-XPD output. It has been used within strart-to-end frameworks [18,19] and for detailed analysis of XFEL beamlines [20,21].…”