3rd Annual IRUVX-PP Meeting on 21 – 23 March in Berlin

 
With a three-day meeting in Berlin, the EU project IRUVX-PP– the “Preparatory Phase of the EuroFEL Consortium” of the ESFRI roadmap 2006 coordinated by DESY – was brought to an end. The event was hosted by Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, one of the project partners.

The participating scientists (117) made a very positive résumé: in the project phase of three years, new networks were created on different levels between the partners. This does not only include technical innovations but also the optimal use of the facilities, coordinated training and exchange of personnel, and improved internal and external communication.

The perfectly organised meeting started on a sunny Monday with the facilities’ status reports on the national FEL projects. A lively panel discussion on the afternoon with the topic future „European collaboration of FEL and SPS facilities“ rounded off the first day. The discussion made evident that the current collaborations in FELs science and technology need to be strengthened.

On Tuesday, the work package leaders summarised their project results and presented highlights from three years of project work, see details:
http:/www.iruvx.eu/annualmeeting2011

On Tuesday afternoon, working groups elaborated proposals for further activities. At first, these will be promoted and funded by the participating centres. Parallel to this, there was a satellite meeting dealing with “Timing and Synchronisation”. Scientists from the partner facilities presented the latest developments, results and experiences.

The last meeting day focused on recent highlights from FEL science and technology developments under the motto “EuroFEL provides access to cutting-edge technology”.

“With IRUVX-PP, we created the basis for a firm and long-term collaboration, and I hope that the obtained results will convince the decision makers”, said coordinator Josef Feldhaus. The future collaboration shall soon be sealed with a memorandum of understanding. Negotiations on this are currently being carried out among the directors of the participating institutes and includes the director of European XFEL too.

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EuroFEL Workshop on Photocathodes for RF guns, INFN of Lecce, Italy

From 1-2 March 2011, the EuroFEL “Workshop on Photocathodes for RF guns” took place at the Physics Department of the University of Salento. This workshop was held in the frame of Workpackage 3 of the IRUVX-PP project and organised by the support of National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN). Over 40 researcher experts in these fields took part to this workshop coming from several international research institutes. In particular L. Cultrera (Cornell University), D. Dowell (SLAC), F. Hannon (Jefferson Laboratory), and X. J. Wang (BNL) attended from the United States.

Despite of the short time, a number of interesting topics was faced such as: Photoemission theory (derivation of QE and thermal emittance, cathode engineering); Photocathode growth and preparation (metal and semiconducting thin films and metal bulk surface treatments); Photoelectrons characterisations (quantum efficiency, thermal emittance, dark current); Photocathode lifetime (observations of pollution, RF conditioning influence, UV laser interaction with residual gas, etc.); Experience on photocathodes; Cathode cleaning techniques (laser cleaning, annealing, ozone gas,etc.); Advanced photoelectron sources (carbon nanotubes, spindt field emitter, ultracold electron sources); New material for photocathodes: high QE, cathodes for IR or green laser light, and for SC guns.

The organisers were very proud to organise this workshop which was a great tool for discussions and for exchange ideas in photocathode R&D. The organisers: Giuseppe Penco, Antonella Lorusso & Siegfried Schreiber

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Directors Meeting at PSI

Representatives of the labs participating in the IRUVX-PP project met from 25 to 26 November at Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. The main
goal of the meeting was to decide on the procedure, the areas and the framework of their future collaboration. IRUVX-PP, the preparatory phase
for EuroFEL, is to finish end of March 2011. The Directors of DESY, Elettra, HZB, INFN, Max-Lab, PSI and STFC agreed on drawing up a Memorandum of Understanding defining the areas of activities in which they want to collaborate in the future.

The MoU is to be signed by the lab directors shortly before the end of the IRUVX-PP project and will define the framework of the collaboration. The
scientists of the IRUVX-PP project are now encouraged to propose precise activities and projects that they would like to pursue after IRUVX-PP, so
that the most propelling projects can be continued in the coordinated and collaborative way that has been successfully initiated in the individual workpackages.

Directors or representatives:
E. Weckert (DESY); C. Rizzuto (Elettra); A. Föhlisch (HZB); L. Palumbo (INFN); S. Svensson (MAX-lab); R. Abela, L. Rivkin, H. Braun (PSI); J. Womersley (STFC;) IRUVX-PP prep group members: J. Feldhaus, U. Krell, M. Kreuzeder (DESY); F. Mazzolini (Elettra); A. Föhlisch (HZB); P. Antici (INFN); M. van Daalen (PSI); G. Bushnell-Wye (STFC); A. Wrulich (WP1)

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News from 32nd International Free Electron Laser Conference in Malmö (23 – 27 August 2010)

At the 32nd International Free Electron Laser Conference in Malmö, Sweden, the EuroFEL consortium has been presented by Josef Feldhaus, scientific coordinator of the projects preparatory phase. Josef Feldhaus reported about the progress of the several national FEL projects and the current status of EuroFEL.
 
The conference was organised by MAX-lab (Lund University), on of the partners of the EuroFEL consortium, and the Stockholm Uppsala FEL Center. FEL 2010 focused on the scientific, technological and some user aspects of Free Electron Lasers.
 
Besides excellent expert presentatios, this years Prize Committee decided to award the prestigious 2010 FEL prize to Dr. Sven Reiche, from the the Paul Scherrer Institute, for “his outstanding contributions to the advancement of the field of Free Electron Laser science and technology”. The Paul Scherrer Institute is one of the partners of the EuroFEL consortium.

More information: http://fel2010.maxlab.lu.se/
Book of abstracts: pdf file

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IRUVX-PP EG-meeting Metrology for FEL Optics

A meeting of the WP3 Expert Group “Metrology for FEL-Optics” is scheduled for 25-26 November 2010 at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI). The meeting will be held in conjunction with members of the WP3 Expert Group “Photon Beam Transport and Diagnostics” and WP7. Other interested scientists of the EuroFEL Consortium are very welcome to join the meeting.

Fur further information, please, feel free to ask the EG-Coordinator: Frank Siewert (frank.siewert@bessy.de) or Uwe Flechsig (uwe.flechsig@psi.ch).

Agenda and timetable of the meeting will follow. For further information please visit the workshop website .

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New experiments need new diagnostics

FELs are opening a fascinating new world of opportunities for photon science. They are providing light pulses of a coherence, brightness and shortness that even a few years ago scientists weren’t able to dream of. But with the new opportunities also new challenges are arising: How to handle and diagnose a light pulse that is a thousand times shorter and a billion times brighter than ever before? Industrial suppliers for today’s synchrotron sources are not able to provide beam line transport systems with the required thermal resistance and spatial accuracy to exploit FELs; they don’t even have the metrology to measure them. New materials, new techniques and new ideas are necessary.

End of June, about 85 scientists from 33 current and future FEL labs and industrial participants met at DESY in Hamburg for the first “EuroFEL Workshop on Photon Beamlines and Diagnostics” which was organised by the workpackages 3 & 7 of the IRUVX-PP project. The aim was to discuss new ideas which arise in the different laboratories, and to start joining the efforts for developing diagnostic systems and metrology. Perspectives of entirely new R&D efforts were presented, for example multilayer mirrors that are able to compress or expand the FEL beam or which can be used for soft X-ray polarimetry techniques. Wave front sensing, another intensively discussed topic, is one of the most promising approaches to optimise FEL beam transport systems and might be used for active or adaptive optics. “It was great to see the participants in intense discussions and making plans for joint projects,” says DESY’s Kai Tiedtke. “The people have amazing new ideas and approaches for the challenges of the FELs.” After three days of presentations and discussion, the participants returned to their labs with the clear wish that this dedicated FEL workshop should mark the start of a series.

More information: http://photondiag2010.eurofel.eu/
Book of abstracts: pdf_file

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