Grand Challenges in Chemical, Biological and Materials Sciences: are X-Ray free electron lasers the tool of choice?

Event details
Date | 20.01.2010 |
Hour | 16:15 |
Speaker | Prof. Jerome Hastings, SLAC National Accelerator Lab, Stanford University |
Location |
Auditoire CE 4 - Centre Est
|
Category | Conferences - Seminars |
The challenges in the chemical, biological and materials sciences that we face in the 21st century are focused on understanding and controlling systems on the atomic length scale and the time scale
of the motion of electrons and atoms. To reach the length scales of interest one needs a source of light with an appropriate wavelength.
To look at motions of electrons and atoms one needs a light source that has a pulse length approaching one femtosecond. Hard x-ray free electron lasers that operate at Angstrom wavelengths and femtosecond
pulse durations seem to be the natural answer. The properties of these sources, focusing on the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, will be discussed and the options for future FELs will be described. Early results from the LCLS will be presented.
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- General public
- Free