March Lectures

Pushing the X-ray Free Electron Laser to its limits

Join us at 15:15, 6th March, in the Fisher room at the university of Oxford for a lecture by Dr. Brian W.J. McNeil (CI, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow).

Abstract: New methods have been developed in the UK that can greatly improve the output from large scale X-ray Free Electron Laser facilities. Such facilities have a photon brightness that is 109-1010 times brighter than synchrotron X-ray sources like Diamond at RAL. Our research into shorter pulses, improved coherence, higher photon energies and multi-colour operation, allow for a greatly enhanced investigation of the natural world and have impact in a wide range of science and its applications from materials science to biological processes. These methods may be tested and developed at the UKRI-STFC CLARA FEL test-facility at Daresbury Laboratory and would inform the design of a future national UK X-ray FEL facility. Some aspects are already being investigated, tested and implemented at existing international X-ray user facilities. In this seminar, I will give an overview of basic X-ray FEL operation and then describe the methods that we have developed to greatly enhance their output.