Reflection of femtosecond pulses from soft X-ray free-electron laser by periodical multilayers

Recent experiments on a soft X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) source (FLASH in Hamburg) have shown that multilayers (MLs) can be used as optical elements for highly intense X-ray irradiation. An effort to find most appropriate MLs has to consider the femtosecond time structure and the particular photon energy of the FEL. In this paper we have analysed the time response of 'low absorbing' MLs (e.g. such as La/B4C) as a function of the number of periods. Interaction of a pulse train of Gaussian shaped sub-pulses using a realistic ML grown by electron-beam evaporation technique has been analysed in the soft-X-ray range. The structural parameters of the MLs were obtained by reflectivity measurements at BESSY II and subsequent profile fittings. (C) 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim