Interaction of Powerful Electro-Magnetic Fields With Bragg Reflectors

The interaction of an X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) with a Bragg Reflector can cause a change of the lattice constant, which has a direct influence on the stability of the reflection conditions [1] and can also excite modes of vibration [2]. The dynamical thermoelastic effects of the photon-matter-interaction are simulated with a finite-element-method (FEM) using the assumptions of continuums mechanics. To compare the simulation results with measured signals, a Michelson interferometer with ultrafast photodiodes (risetime 2GHz) has been built up. To test the experimental setup in an in-house environment a pulsed UV laser is used to introduce a temporal displacement field in a silicon crystal created by about 0.26µJ of absorbed energy. The measured signal is in agreement with the FEM simulation and has shown that if averaging over thousands of pulses is applied a resolution <0.5pm is feasible. This makes this experimental setup useful to investigate the X-ray-matter-interaction of Bragg reflectors at modern X-ray facilities.