Thursday, Mai 28, 2009, 16:00
WHGA Auditorium
B. D. Patterson (PSI)
Abstract:
Third generation synchrotrons provide an average X-ray brightness 10^9 times
that of a laboratory source, making trivial many experiments which were
formerly impossible. But standard short-wavelength synchrotron light is also
incoherent and is limited to pulse lengths in excess of 100 ps. A hard X-ray
free electron laser (XFEL) will produce a peak brightness 10^10 times that
of a synchrotron, with full lateral coherence and 20 fs pulse lengths. I
briefly present the operating principle of an XFEL and technical innovations
proposed by PSI for a national XFEL facility [1]. Possible coherent
scattering and time-resolved applications of the XFEL are discussed, in the
fields of chemistry, biochemistry, structural biology, magnetism and
correlated electron systems.
[1] http://fel.web.psi.ch