Dear Colleagues,

As you may be aware things are moving forward rapidly on the international scene in X-ray Free Electron Laser (FEL) research. There has been a steady stream of high profile publications across a wide range of scientific disciplines emerging from the LCLS facility in Stanford and the FLASH facility in Hamburg, and this flow looks set to strengthen and deepen in the next years with other facilities becoming operational.

Given the potential for revolutionary scientific breakthroughs emerging from X-ray FELs it is imperative that UK science remains closely engaged with these developments. As part of the UK FEL forums mission to promote FEL research in the UK we are organising a 1 day meeting on June 14th at Imperial College in London to explore the current science and potential of X-ray FEL.

Invited speakers include an array of leading scientists in the field:

Henry Chapman (CFEL, DESY, Germany) “Protein Nanocrystallography” TBC

John Costello (Dublin City University, Ireland) “EUV and X-ray Free Electron Lasers – A New Frontier in AMO Physics”

Thomas Cowan (Helmholtz Institute, Germany) “The Helmholtz Beamline at XFEL “
Janos Hajdu (University of Uppsala, Sweden) “Imaging at High-Energy Densities”

Steven Johnson (ETH, Switzerland) “Controlling Dynamics in Solids: Femtosecond X-ray Diffraction”

Jon Marangos (Imperial College) “Ultrafast Molecular Dynamics with X-Ray FELs”

Malcolm McMahon (University of Edinburgh) “Accessing Extreme States of Matter on X-FELS”

Jim Naismith (University of St Andrews) “UK Life Sciences at XFEL” TBC

Ian Robinson (UCL) “Direct Imaging of Phonon Modes in Gold Nano-Particles” TBC

Robin Santra (CFEL DESY, Germany) “High-Intensity X-ray Interactions with Heavy Atomic Species”

Justin Wark (Oxford University) “Solid Density Plasmas Created and Diagnosed with X-ray Lasers”

The meeting is open to all interested scientists. There will be no fee. Refreshments will be provided thanks to sponsorship from the Central Laser Facility and Diamond Light Source. Please pre-register if you wish to attend by sending an email to: j.baylis@imperial.ac.uk

Best regards,
Jon Marangos, on behalf of the UK FEL Forum