Nanosecond Timing And Synchronization Scheme For Holographic Pump-Probe Studies At The Mid Instrument At European Xfel

Single-pulse holographic imaging at XFEL sources with 10(12) photons delivered in pulses shorter than 100 fs reveal new quantitative insights into fast phenomena. Here, a timing and synchronization scheme for stroboscopic imaging and quantitative analysis of fast phenomena on time scales (sub-ns) and length-scales (less than or similar to 100 nm) inaccessible by visible light is reported. A fully electronic delay-and-trigger system has been implemented at the MID station at the European XFEL, and applied to the study of emerging laser-driven cavitation bubbles in water. Synchronization and timing precision have been characterized to be better than 1 ns.