May 19 – 20, 2015
Paul Scherrer Institut
Europe/Zurich timezone

Welcome / Overview

In 2017, two hard X-ray experimental stations of the Swiss Free Electron Laser (SwissFEL) will see X-FEL light: ES-A will be dedicated to pump-probe chemistry and liquid-jet serial crystallography, and ES-B will emphasize pump-probe crystallography on inorganic samples and thin-films at low temperature. A third hard X-ray station, ES-C, is presently in the conceptual design phase, and will come online later. It is foreseen that ES-C will provide X-ray focii of various submicrometer sizes. While the designs of ES-A and ES-B are frozen, for ES-C there is still freedom both in the definition of the scientific scope and in the instrument layout. This has triggered the SwissFEL management to organize a two-day workshop, in order to establish contact with potential users, and to discuss technical issues related to possible experiments. Short contributions from the participants will be explicitly encouraged, and will serve as the basis for discussions, for which ample time is reserved.

19.05.2015: Workshop on "Non-linear experiments with hard X-rays at the SwissFEL"
SwissFEL will run not only in the standard SASE mode, but also the self-seeding (narrow bandwidth) and attosecond (ultrashort pulses) operation modes are foreseen. Two-color and two-pulse options are under evaluation. These peculiarities, combined with the high-intensities achievable with the proposed submicrometer focus at ES-C, lead to consider more "exotic" experiments with hard X-rays that involve non-linear phenomena.
The goals of the workshop are (a) to understand the Non-linear Optics science case with hard X-rays, (b) to establish whether the expected/proposed X-ray pulse specifications at the SwissFEL hard X-ray stations make the experiments feasible, (c) to ensure that sufficient flexibility is maintained in the ES-C design, and (d) to identify particular instrumentation wishes to be accounted for by SwissFEL.

20.05.2015: Workshop on "Nanoscale Material Science at SwissFEL" -- CANCELED (eventually postponed to later day)
As a strategical decision, SwissFEL plans to offer the possibility of investigating "Materials at the nanoscale", which is understood as anything that goes beyond traditional material science crystallography. This category includes for instance investigation on strained crystals, amorphous materials, and clusters. At ES-A and ES-B, the setup for pump-probe diffuse scattering from a few micrometer sized beam will be available. At ES-C, various nanodiffraction setups are under consideration.
The goals of the workshop are (a) to identify types of experiments with hard X-rays in the field of nanoscale science, and in view of these experiments, (b) to identify the possibilities at ES-A and ES-B, and (c) to discuss and improve the general setup proposed for ES-C.