Behaviour of scintillators under XUV free electron laser radiation

Free electron lasers (FEL) are new generation accelerator-based short wavelength light sources providing high pulse intensity and femtosecond pulse duration, which enable investigation of interaction of elementary excitations in solids under extreme conditions. Using the FLASH facility of HASYLAB at DESY (Hamburg, Germany), we investigated the response of different materials with scintillating properties based on intrinsic emissions to the 25.6 and 13.8 nm FEL radiation by means of time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy. FLASH delivered single pulses of 25 fs duration having energy per pulse up to 30 μJ resulting in power densities of ∼1012 W/cm2 on crystals. As a function of excitation density we observed the shortening of lifetime and non-exponential behaviour of emission decays in CaWO4, while the emission spectra recorded are comparable to those obtained at conventional excitation sources.