A Statistical Analysis of Ultrafast Light Pulses Generated by X-ray Free Electron Lasers

The advent of X-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) has provided unprecedented capabilities for studying atomic and molecular processes using ultrafast light pulses produced by the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) process. Despite their undeniable utility, SASE pulses are limited by the fact that they are intrinsically stochastic and exhibit large shot-to-shot fluctuations. In this presentation, I will discuss a statistical analysis of the random properties that comprise SASE pulses which are simulated through the partial coherence method [1] across various sets of FEL laser parameters. In addition, I will discuss the effects that a variable spectral coherence width imposes on these statistical properties along with any insights that this may introduce for XFEL-based spectroscopy.