Laser-to-RF Synchronization with Femtosecond Precision

Optical synchronization systems are already in regular operation in many FELs, or they will eventually be implemented in the future. In FLASH and the European XFEL, phase-stable optical reference signals are provided by a pulsed optical synchronization system in order to achieve low timing jitter FEL performance. The generation of phase-stable RF signals from a pulsed optical synchronization system is still a field of active research. The optical reference module (REFM-OPT), designed at DESY for operation in both FELs, employs a laserto-RF phase detector, based on an integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The phase drift of the 1.3 GHz RF reference signals with respect to the optical pulses is measured and actively corrected within the REFM-OPT at multiple locations in the accelerator. Therefore the REFM-OPT provides phase stable 1.3 GHz RF reference signals at these locations. The short-term and long-term performance in the accelerator tunnel of the European XFEL is presented and carefully reviewed.