Diffraction Limited Storage Rings and Free Electron Lasers-Why Do We Need Both?

Accelerator-driven photon sources have experienced phenomenal development and success over the last decades. Worldwide, many thousands of scientists travel to these facilities to conduct their research, and new and upgraded facilities are under construction in several countries around the world. While storage-ring facilities have been at the heart of this effort, attention has somewhat turned to the construction of free-electron laser (FEL) facilities. As the price tag for these facilities is in the range of $100s of millions, even surpassing $1 billion, the question arises whether science and society really need both kinds of facilities.
In this talk I give examples of experiments that are unique to each of these light sources, emphasizing the need for both-state-of-the-art diffraction-limited storage rings (DLSRs) and FELs-to meet the challenges of modern science and technology.
Host:
Zahid Hussain, ALS
Speaker:
Wolfgang Eberhardt, DESY-CFEL
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Advanced Light Source
Berkeley Lab