Response-time improved hydrothermal-method-grown ZnO scintillator for XFEL timing-observation

An iron doped, hydrothermal method-grown, zinc oxide (ZnO) scintillator was demonstrated to exhibit an over 10 times faster response time of its excitonic fluorescence compared with an undoped-ZnO crystal. For X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) excitation, the fluorescence rise and decay time constants were measured to be 2.1 ps and 70 ps, respectively. Accurate timing control of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) femtosecond pulses necessitate temporal jitters to be evaluated. Results suggest that this scintillator’s response time is sufficient to allow the evaluation of sub 100-ps jitter in XFEL measurement systems and will be crucial in pump and probe experiments in the future.