XFEL

Technical Information

Science (old)

Tesla Colloqium 2001 ·

Tesla Colloqium March 2001

As examples of scientific applications of XFEL radiation five presentations, given at the TESLA Colloquium on March 23/24, 2001 in Hamburg, illustrate the possibilities for chemistry, plasma physics, condensed-matter physics and biology. To start with, an overview talk places the XFEL in the landscape of X-ray research. The talks are listed including a brief summary of their contents.

X-FEL - Light of the New Millenium by Helmut Dosch, MPI Metallforschung Stuttgart In this overview talk, state-of-the-art of research with X-rays was presented in a wide variety of scientific areas. It is shown that at present static properties can be investigated with high quality and that the XFEL will open up new possibilities for the investigation of dynamical phenomena. Time-resolved Photo Diffraction Probed Chemical Reactions by Simone Techert, MPI Biophysical Chemistry Göttingen The XFEL will open for the first time the possibility to investigate structural properties of molecules during chemical reactions. The time resolution will allow to access the fastest configurational changes. Examples are organic solids, photo-induced order/disorder phenomena in organic conductors or polymerisation. Creating & Probing Extreme States of Matter with an X-ray FEL by Richard Lee, Physics Department Berkeley Plasma Physics, not yet using large scale installations for X-ray research, benefits form the the extreme brilliance of these new sources and will enable multiple use of it. Firstly the beam itself can be used to produce plasma states in a very clean way. These plasmas can then be investigated, in particular in the regime of warm-dense-matter. A second area is the use of the highly brilliant radiation and its ultrafast pulse to make spectroscopy at plasmas, that may be generated by another source. Surfaces in a New Light by Robert Feidenhans'l, Riso National Laboratory The relevance of the XFEL to the study of dynamic properties of condensed-matter systems was presented. Yet only static properties are known with sufficient precision. Investigation of dynamic properties will facilitate the understanding of phenomena such as surface melting and dynamics, tribology at nanometer scale or the dynamic behaviour of grains, e.g. at boundaries. X-ray Free-Electron Lasers in Structural Biology : The Fall of the Wall ? by Janos Hajdu, Biomedical Center Uppsala In structural biology the XFEL could provide the possibility to investigate a class of molecules presently not accessible for structural determination. The high brilliance allows to obtain data from these molecules in the very small time window before they are damaged. Techniques for such experiments exist already. Using these techniques even the determination of structural properties of the smallest creatures capable of self-replication, Mycoplasmas, seems possible.