Recent Advances in the Generation of Pulsed Synchrotron Radiation Suitable for Picosecond Time-Resolved X-ray Studies

We describe the beamline optics, the shutters and the femtosecond laser used in pump & probe experiments down to 50 picosecond resolution. The performance of in-vacuum undulators is compared to in-air undulators. It is concluded that single-harmonic in-vacuum undulators are optimal for pump and probe experiments based on single-bunch exposures. These low-K undulators can produce a spectral flux of 4.0 x 10 ph/0.1%bw per pulse at 15 keV, a factor of 5 higher than standard in-air undulators. The Laue diffraction study of the photolysis of CO in myoglobin is described. The study shows that high-level photolysis is possible with laser pulses as short as 100 fs and that the radiation damage from repeated x-ray and laser exposures is small. The success of the experiment indicates that the time-resolution of macro molecular crystallography may reach 200 fs with a future free electron laser (XFEL). Content: