STATUS OF SPARX PROJECT

摘要

Driven by the large interest that 4th generation light sources, i.e. X-ray SASE FELs, have raised world-wide in the synchrotron light scientific community, as well as in the particle accelerator community, and following the solicitations arising from several Italian national research institutions, the Italian Government launched in 2001 a long-term initiative devoted to the realization in Italy of a coherent X-ray source. In March 2002 a proposal, born from a collaboration among ENEA, INFN, CNR, Universita di Roma "Tor Vergata", and INFM was strategically oriented to explore both the feasibility of a ultra-brilliant photo-injector and to perform a SASE-FEL experiments based on the SPARC Test Facility. In 2004 the scientific program was enriched with a seeding and velocity bunching experiments, and new diagnostics devices, by means of EUROFEL, Design Study Project funded by 7th Framework Programme of EC. The SPARC Test Facility is now at the end of its installation; a robust beam physics experiments program has demonstrated the achievement of the nominal parameter of the electron photo-injector downstream the gun [2]. The experimental program will continue in the next months with the full characterization of the electron beam at 150 MeV which includes slice emittance and velocity bunching measurements [3]. The SPARX (Sorgente Pulsata Autoamplificata di Radiazione X) FEL is devoted to the realization of SASE radiation source operating with Seeding and Harmonic Generation schemes. It will cover the spectral bandwidth from 0.6 nm to 40 nm, with a temporal resolution in the range 1 fs -100 fs. The source is complementary to the Fermi-FEL Facility in costruction at Elettra Trieste and to the European X-FEL in Hamburg, and will offer a powerful tool unique in its characteristics and helpful for a number of applications in basic science and technology: time resolved X-ray diffraction with pump and probe experiments, nanolithography processes, biological proteins, nano-particles and clusters, coherent diffraction and holographic X-ray techniques, nano-imaging. The initiative, which got the first fundings from the Ministry of Research MIUR and from the Regione Lazio, foresees a construction of a user facility inside the Tor Vergata campus by a collaboration among CNR, ENEA, INFN and the Universita di Tor Vergata itself. The above institutions will collaborate through the SPARX-FEL Consortium which will construct and operate the facility. SPARX-FEL is also participating at the preparatory phase of the IRUVX-FEL Consortium, which gathers, the major national FEL facilities in Europe.