Welcome to the Elettra SR-FEL

The continuous efforts to improve the performance of light sources yielded in the recent past to very important achievements, such as the production of powerful coherent radiation down to wavelengths in the UV and soft X-ray ranges. However, it is only during the last decade that the development of technology allowed the transition from the conceptual design to the construction of free electron lasers (FELs) operating in the VUV and X-ray range. This new class of machines is able to generate ultra-short pulses with extremely high brilliance, opening the possibility of exploring physical domains so far inaccessible. Most of the FEL projects under development are based on two alternative single-pass schemes: self-amplification of the electron beam spontaneous emission (SASE) and coherent harmonic generation (CHG) from an input signal provided, e.g., by an external laser.
At Elettra, the setup for FEL operation is the single-pass, CHG scheme, with seeding performed using the radiation coming from a Ti:Sa laser.