Workshop on Novel X-ray Science Opportunities at SLAC: High-Energy X-rays at XFEL

America/Los_Angeles
48/1-112A/B/C/D - Redwood A/B/C/D (SLAC)

48/1-112A/B/C/D - Redwood A/B/C/D

SLAC

2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park, CA 94025
90
Claudio Emma (SLAC), David Reis (SLAC), Uta Ruett (SLAC)
Description

The next-generation x-ray source LCLS-II-HE will deliver unprecedented capabilities as an 8 GeV superconducting XFEL, covering photon energies from 250 eV to 13 keV at repetition rates up to 1 MHz. In parallel, an integration of the existing copper-based XFEL with the FACET test facility could become a 2 km accelerator producing 30 GeV electron beams at up to 360 Hz. This development would extend XFEL photon energies to the 1–50 keV range, pushing well beyond current state-of-the-art limits.

This workshop will explore the transformative scientific opportunities enabled by these advances. By combining high photon energies—offering deep penetration and access to large regions of reciprocal space—with full beam coherence, extreme brightness, and ultrafast (1-100 fs) single-shot capabilities, entirely new experimental regimes become accessible. These include probing dynamics in industrially relevant materials, resolving buried functional interfaces, and observing processes within realistic devices. Such capabilities open new pathways for studying disordered and complex systems whose structure and evolution remain largely inaccessible with conventional hard x-ray techniques.

Participants
  • Friday 28 August
    • Plenary: Welcome and Workshop Introduction
      Conveners: Claudio Emma (SLAC), David Reis (SLAC)
    • Plenary: Matter in Extremes
      • 1
        Prof. Leora Dresselhaus-Marais
      • 2
        Dr. Jonathan Almer

        Opportunities to Study Materials in Extremes with High-Energy X-rays

      • 3
        Prof. Sam Vinko (remote)
    • Lunch
    • Plenary: Prospective Source Parameters and Materials Science and Engineering
      • 4
        Prof. Agostino Marinelli

        Prospective source parameters for a high energy XFEL based on the SLAC linac

      • 5
        Dr. Zahir Islam
    • Coffee Break and Group Photo
    • Plenary: Materials Science and Engineering
      • 6
        Dr. Jon Eggert
      • 7
        Dr. Fan Zhang

        NIST Perspectives on High-Speed High-Energy X-ray Diffraction for Advanced Manufacturing

      • 8
        Dr. Makina Yabashi

        XFEL applications with >50 keV photons, particularly for the imaging/CT field

    • Plenary: Panel Discussion
    • Poster session and Reception
  • Saturday 29 August
    • Plenary: Materials Science and Engineering
      • 9
        Prof. Simon Billinge

        Exciting local structure: high resolution ultrafast PDF science

      • 10
        Dr. Ann-Christin Dippel (remote)

        The great success story and unwritten chapters of high-energy x-ray diffraction and scattering for physics and chemistry

      • 11
        Dr. Stephan Hruszkewycz (remote)

        Using coherent hard x-rays to enable imaging of nanoscale structural heterogeneity and dynamics in polycrystals

    • Coffee Break and Group Photo
    • Plenary: Chemistry
      • 12
        Prof. Johan Gustafson

        High energy XFEL for surface structure and catalysis

      • 13
        Dr. Simon Gerber

        Escaping Beam Heating and Electronic Damage Using Ultrafast X-Ray Pulses

    • Lunch
    • Plenary: Materials Science and Engineering and High Energy X-ray Detectors
      • 14
        Prof. Paul Evans

        Nanoscale Dynamics of Complex Materials

      • 15
        Dr. Gabriella Carini
    • Coffee Break and Group Photo
    • Working Groups: Cross cutting topics. From science to functional facility requirements. Report Writing
    • Plenary: Working group presentations and closing remarks