The photon beam delivered alternatively by the two FEL sections (FEL1 and FEL2) is collected, analyzed, and re-directed to the following beamlines in the Experimental Hall by the PADReS section.
The PADReS (Photon Analysis Delivery and Reduction System) is located between the undulators and the main Switching Chambers. For each FEL it includes (going downstream):

• Front-End section (x-ray slits, shutter, and radiation stopper)
• Gas Monitor Detector 1 (GMD1): I₀ monitor and Beam Position Monitor
• Gas Attenuator (GA)
• Gas Monitor Detector 2 (GMD2): I₀ monitor and Beam Position Monitor
• Radiation Absorbtion Mirrors (RAM)
• X-ray spectrometer

A common Switching Chamber (SC) directing to the beamlines the beams coming from both FELs is located at the end of the section.

PADReS layout: Front-end, GMD1, GA, GMD2, RAM

PADReS layout: RAM, x-ray spectrometers, SC

PADReS Contact Information:

Daniele Cocco
+39 040 375 8694
daniele.cocco@elettra.trieste.it

Three beamlines are designed in order to serve three separate endstations dedicated to different scientific areas: Low Density Matter (LDM), Elastic and Inelastic Scattering (EIS), and DIffraction and PRojection Imaging (DIPROI). The beamlines start after the PADReS. The movable LDM monochromator can be inserted to direct the beam to the LDM endstation. If retracted, it allows the beam travel to the EIS Switching Mirror where it is possible to select between the EIS and the DiProI endstations. A further insertable mirror can direct the beam either to the EIS or the TIMEX experiments.

Beamlines layout

The microscopy beamline will host an experimental station for coherent DIfraction and PROjection Imaging, DIPROI, adapted for research in various domains in a single shot mode. The design and construction of DIPROI will be based on the know-how of the partners who developed the coherent diffraction station operated at FLASH. The extreme brightness and high coherence of FERMI will enable the collection of single-pulse coherent diffraction patterns providing structural information of objects before they undergo a radiation-induced degradation. The spatial and time resolution are limited by the FEL wavelength and pulse duration (10-50 fs). It is planned to implement point projection imaging using non-conventional focusing diffractive optics for illuminating the object. The magnified projection image geometry provides information not usually available in the far-field diffraction geometry, which greatly improves the iterative inversion of the diffraction hologram.

Time-resolved diffraction imaging using split FEL pulses with adjustable delay or short-pulse optical laser pump will be used for pump-probe experiments to study transient phenomena occurring at fs to ps time scales. Stereo imaging by splitting the pulse and simultaneously hitting object from two directions and submicrometer focusing will be developed as well. The research fields will cover structural studies of non-periodic objects, such as nano-particles, biomolecules, inhomogeneities and defects in organic films, lateral organization of self-assembled bio-monolayers, shock wave propagation in very thin films or surface regions of bulk materials etc.

DiProI Instrument Team:

Maya Kiskinova
Head of Microscopy
+39 040 3758549
maya.kiskinova@elettra.trieste.it

Henry Chapman
CFEL/DESY Collaborator
+49 40 89984155
henry.chapman@cfel.de

Janos Hajdu
Uppsala University Collaborator
+46 18 4714449
janos@xray.bmc.uu.se

Hans Hertz
KTH Stockholm Collaborator
+46 08 55378123
hans.hertz@biox.kth.se

The advent of free electron lasers enables the exploration of a new ultrafast-ultrasmall frontier in atomic and molecular physics. It is possible to control outer-shell electron dynamics with intense ultrafast optical lasers along with inner-shell processes by combining intense infrared/optical lasers with tunable sources of XUV and x-ray radiation.

Schematic of interaction region with diagnostics

LDM Instrument Team:

Carlo Callegari
+39 040 375 8844
carlo.callegari@elettra.trieste.it

The Elastic and Inelastic Scattering (EIS) beamline, associated with the FERMI@Elettra Free Electron Laser (FEL) project, will be dedicated to two different research projects:

1) TIME-Resolved spectroscopy of mesoscopic dynamics in condensed matter (TIMER);
2) Ultrafast TIme-Resolved Studies of Matter under EXtreme and Metastable Conditions (TIMEX).

In the first case, the FEL pulses photon energy and brilliance will be used for transient grating formation in the sample with a spatial period (i. e. momentum transfer) at the nanoscale. This would be extremely interesting concerning the physics of disordered systems since it will make accessible the mesoscopic kinematic region that cannot be explored by the use of visible laser based instruments. Transient grating experiments at the nanoscale could also allow sensitive probing of interfaces, extremely thin films, and heat transport and correlations in nanostructured materials. TIMEX will exploit the unique intensity, energy domain and time structure of the FEL to probe metastable and/or excited matter under extreme conditions. In particular, the energy and intensity of the Fermi@Elettra FEL beam is suitable for an efficient ultrafast heating of most bulk-like dense samples.

EIS Instrument Team:

Claudio Masciovecchio
+39 040 375 8093
claudio.masciovecchio@elettra.trieste.it