Single-pulse measurement of synchrotron radiation using an ultrafast x-ray streak camera

We have demonstrated that a newly developed, ultrafast x-ray streak camera is sensitive to single x-ray pulses of highly monochromatic and unfocused synchrotron radiation at 8 keV. The high sensitivity was achieved by using CsI as the photocathode material. The individually measured x-ray pulses revealed that the bunch length was 120 ps long (full-width-at-half-maximum) and about 20-30 photon events were registered by streak camera in each pulse at the experimental conditions. The results demonstrated the feasibility of using this streak camera for single-shot experiments and using single x-ray pulses from the third-generation synchrotron sources with microfocused and/or polychromatic beams.