Design of FELICE, the third light source of the free electron laser facility FELIX

摘要

As reported last year, a new FEL light source, dedicated to fundamental research of the structure and dynamics of (bio)molecules, clusters, and nano-particles, is presently under development at the FELIX facility. This Free Electron Laser for Intra-Cavity Experiments (FELICE) is designed to generate pulsed infrared radiation, tunable in the region of 3-100 μm. It should allow intra-cavity experiments with optical beam energies in the interaction point of some 10 J in a few μs pulse, which is a factor of 100 higher than currently available for the users. Two permanent intra-cavity set-ups are planned: a high-resolution 7 T FT-ICR mass spectrometer with appropriate ion sources and a molecular/cluster beam set-up. Funding of the project was finally granted in December 2002. R&D and construction stages are estimated to take about three years to be completed.