We present the first lasing results of SwissFEL, a hard X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) that recently came into operation at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. SwissFEL is a very stable, compact and cost-effective X-ray FEL facility driven by a low-energy and ultra-low-emittance electron beam travelling through short-period undulators. It delivers stable hard X-ray FEL radiation at 1-Å wavelength with pulse energies of more than 500 μJ, pulse durations of ~30 fs (root mean square) and spectral bandwidth below the per-mil level. Using special configurations, we have produced pulses shorter than 1 fs and, in a different set-up, broadband radiation with an unprecedented bandwidth of ~2%. The extremely small emittance demonstrated at SwissFEL paves the way for even more compact and affordable hard X-ray FELs, potentially boosting the number of facilities worldwide and thereby expanding the population of the scientific community that has access to X-ray FEL radiation.

SwissFEL is a free electron laser facility designed to produce FEL radiation at wavelengths from 0.1 to 7 nm. The beam commissioning of its hard X-ray undulator line ("Aramis") started 10/2016, and first lasing was observed in 12/2016. Presently, a 2nd undulator line ("Athos") for soft X-rays is being constructed, with 1st beam scheduled for mid-2019. In the injector, linac and Aramis beam transfer lines, 95 low-Q cavity BPMs operating at 3.3 GHz are used that were designed to support the future two-bunch operation mode with 28 ns bunch spacing and 100 Hz repetition rate. The Aramis (and future Athos) undulator lines will only be operated with single bunches by means of a fast beam distribution kicker system, and are thus equipped with high-Q cavity BPMs operating at 4.9 GHz. The BPMs are not only used for beam trajectory optimization, but also for beam energy measurements (using standard cavity BPMs in the bunch compressors and beam dumps), beam charge and transmission measurements, or improvement of the performance of other monitors like wire scanners for profile measurement. This paper will report about the first operation experience with the BPM system, including a performance comparison of low-Q and high-Q BPMs.

The SwissFEL X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility started construction at the Paul Scherrer Institute (Villigen, Switzerland) in 2013 and will be ready to accept its first users in 2018 on the Aramis hard X-ray branch. In the following sections we will summarize the various aspects of the project, including the design of the soft and hard X-ray branches of the accelerator, the results of SwissFEL performance simulations, details of the photon beamlines and experimental stations, and our first commissioning results.

The injector of the European XFEL is in operation since December 2015. It includes, beside the gun and the accelerating section, containing 1.3 and a 3.9 GHz accelerating module, a variety of standard diagnostics systems specially designed for this facility. With very few exceptions, all types of diagnostics systems are installed in the injector. Therefore the operation of the injector is served to validate and prove the diagnostics characteristics for the complete European XFEL. Most of the standard diagnostics has been available for the start of beam operation and showed the evidence of first beam along the beam line. In the following months the diagnostics has been optimized and used for improvements of beam quality. First operational experiences and results from the standard beam diagnostics in the injector of the European XFEL will be reported in this contribution.

SwissFEL [1] is a Free Electron Laser (FEL) facility being constructed at PSI, based on a 5.8GeV normally conducting main linac. A photocathode gun will generate two bunches with 28ns spacing at 100Hz repetition rate, with a nominal charge range of 10-200pC. A fast beam distribution kicker will allow to distribute one bunch to a soft X-ray undulator line and the other bunch to a 0.1nm hard X-ray undulator line. The SwissFEL electron beam position monitor (BPM) system will employ three different types of dual-resonator cavity BPMs, since the accelerator has three different beam pipe apertures. In the injector and main linac (38mm and 16mm aperture), 3.3GHz cavity BPMs will be used, where a low QL of ~40 was chosen to minimize crosstalk of the two bunches [2]. In the undulators that just have single bunches and 8mm BPM aperture, a higher QL will be chosen. This paper reports on the development status of the SwissFEL BPM system. Synergies as well as differences to the E-XFEL BPM system [3] will also be highlighted.

SwissFEL is a 0.1nm hard X-ray Free Electron Laser being built at PSI. A photocathode gun, S-band injector and C-band linac provide 2 bunches at 28ns spacing, 10200pC charge range, 100Hz repetition rate, and 5.8GeV maximum energy. A fast distribution kicker will provide one bunch each to one hard X-ray and one soft X-ray undulator line. For linac and undulators, first prototypes of dual-resonator cavity BPM pickups have been designed and one undulator prototype has been fabricated. The pickups were optimized for low charge and short bunch spacing in the linac. Design considerations, simulation and first test results will be reported.