TY - JOUR A1 - Schick, Daniel A1 - Le Guyader, Loic A1 - Pontius, Niko A1 - Radu, Ilie A1 - Kachel, Torsten A1 - Mitzner, Rolf A1 - Zeschke, Thomas A1 - Schuessler-Langeheine, Christian A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander A1 - Holldack, Karsten T1 - Analysis of the halo background in femtosecond slicing experiments JF - Journal of synchrotron radiation N2 - The slicing facility FemtoSpeX at BESSY II offers unique opportunities to study photo-induced dynamics on femtosecond time scales by means of X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, resonant and non-resonant X-ray diffraction, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy experiments in the soft X-ray regime. Besides femtosecond X-ray pulses, slicing sources inherently also produce a so-called `halo' background with a different time structure, polarization and pointing. Here a detailed experimental characterization of the halo radiation is presented, and a method is demonstrated for its correct and unambiguous removal from femtosecond time-resolved data using a special laser triggering scheme as well as analytical models. Examples are given for time-resolved measurements with corresponding halo correction, and errors of the relevant physical quantities caused by either neglecting or by applying a simplified model to describe this background are estimated. KW - femtosecond slicing KW - halo KW - pump-probe KW - XMCD KW - X-ray scattering Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1107/S160057751600401X SN - 1600-5775 VL - 23 SP - 700 EP - 711 PB - International Union of Crystallography CY - Chester ER -