The U.S. National Science Foundation announced $90.8 million in funding for a Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-2 award to Arizona State University with a subaward to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to create the world’s first Compact X-ray Free-Electron Laser, or CXFEL, facility. It will provide X-ray pulses so short that they outrun all X-ray damage processes and they are shorter than many fundamental processes in nature. As a result, scientists can conduct novel science to explore the structure and dynamics of nature and materials as never before. The CXFEL brings ultrashort X-ray technology from mile-long, multibillion-dollar XFEL facilities at national laboratories to the tabletop environment of universities. Dr. Oliver Gessner and Dr. Thorsten Weber from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in collaboration with Arizona State University are engaged in the design of a multimodal suite of instruments for time-resolved studies of biochemistry, atomic and molecular physics, and condensed matter including quantum materials. The instruments will use fully coherent, ultrashort x-ray pulses to track the dynamics and structure of matter with unparalleled spatial and temporal precision.

Click here to read the full article