Workshops on Science enabled by a Coherent, CW, Synchrotron X-ray Source

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports a series of six (6) workshops on the Cornell University Campus in June 2011. The workshops will explore the scientific potential of a continuous-duty, coherent (fully diffraction-limited), hard (l<1.5 Å) synchrotron x-ray source. A continuous-duty source (or CW source) is one that delivers x-rays in a continuous train of pulses at rates exceeding a million per second. CW hard x-ray sources will enable a variety of new coherent and nanobeam experiments that cannot be done otherwise. Such sources include ultimate storage rings, energy recovery LINACs (ERLs), and high-repetition-rate x-ray free-electron lasers (X-FELs). Fully coherent hard x-ray sources will enable revolutionary new techniques for examining non-crystalline and time evolving systems on atomic length scales and in femtoseconds time scale. Recently, a large effort has gone into developing techniques utilizing coherent x-ray beams produced by pulsed X-FELs (e.g., FLASH and LCLS). These are more suitable to single shot measurements. This workshop focuses on measurements which require more photons than are available in a single shot or which need to probe the same sample repetitively. The community is just beginning to explore which types of measurements and science are best performed on low-duty-cycle pulsed X-FELs and which are best performed on CW sources. The Workshop will engage the community in developing ideas for the science case of fully coherent CW hard x-ray sources. Talks and organizers summaries of the discussions will be made broadly available through the World Wide Web. Funds from the National Science foundation support participation of students, postdocs, and young scientists from a broad range of discipline, including members of underrepresented groups in science and engineering, and minority serving institutions. The workshop is jointly funded by programs and divisions from two NSF directorates, Biosciences, and the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate (Chemistry, Division of Materials Research, Physics and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities).