STFC hosts global free electron laser conference in Liverpool

A global conference which will showcase recent and future scientific developments in the field of free electron lasers will be hosted by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) in Liverpool from 23-28 August 2009.

Light is one of the most important investigative tools for science, and free electron lasers (FELs) generate the most intense source of light currently available to scientists for their experiments. FELs can be used to help us better understand the fundamental processes of life itself as scientists can study chemical reactions in real time, examine how catalysts behave, and increase their understanding of biological processes. This could pave the way for significant advancements in fields such as space, healthcare and sustainable energy.

The 31st international Free Electron Laser Conference, organised by STFC Daresbury Laboratory, is being held at Liverpool’s BT Conference Centre and will attract around 260 specialists in this area of science from 28 countries.

The conference will host a combination of themed sessions and workshops focusing on recent breakthroughs and exciting new developments in FELs from across the world and demonstrate how they are being used to benefit society. FEL light is already being used by doctors to kill sebaceous glands – the cause of pimples – without burning the skin, and it is thought that laser treatment could help people with severe acne avoid permanent scarring without taking existing forms of medication which can have significant side effects.

A highlight of the week will be a detailed talk by a scientist from the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) facility in Stanford, USA on its first results. The LCLS is the world’s newest FEL source which earlier this year demonstrated the world’s first delivery of hard x-rays from a laser.

Talks will also be presented on how scientists are working to realise new and emerging concepts in FELs such as moving beyond using x-rays towards gamma-rays; the feasibility of using small plasma-based wakefield accelerators in place of large-scale conventional particle accelerators; and how FELs are at the heart of a proposal being developed for a New Light Source facility for the UK.

Delegates will get the chance to visit STFC Daresbury Laboratory to see for themselves the world-class science taking place there. As part of their trip they will see the Laboratory’s prototype for the next generation of accelerator-based light sources ALICE (Accelerators and Lasers in Combined Experiments), where the UK’s first operational FEL will be installed later this year.

On behalf of the International Executive Committee of the FEL Conference, Event Co-Chair and Director of STFC’s Accelerator Science and Technology Centre, Mike Poole said: “We are delighted to be hosting the conference. This event is a highlight in the calendar for the FEL community and gives scientists from across the world the chance to come together to discuss progress and new ideas on the physics and technology of this fast-evolving area of science.”

For more information visit the FEL 09 (link opens in a new window) website.

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Notes for editors

Contacts

• Karen Coles
  Press Officer
  STFC Daresbury Laboratory
  Tel: +44(0)1925 603 232
  
  
• Mike Poole
  Director, Accelerator Science and Technology Centre
  STFC Daresbury Laboratory
  Tel: +44(0)1925 603256

Other events taking place as part of the conference

The conference gives the research community an opportunity to recognise the significant contributions of scientists to the advancement of the field through two special annual awards; ‘Young Researcher’ and ‘Key Achievement’.

To complement the workshops, more than 200 scientific papers will be presented at special poster sessions across the week and there is an industrial exhibition for key suppliers for the field.

A full programme (link opens in a new window) can be downloaded from the FEL09 website.

About Free Electron Lasers

Free Electron Lasers (FELs) are an increasingly important kind of light source. Standard lasers can be very bright sources of visible light but they soon fade away in the deep ultra-violet and x-ray regions of the spectrum. FELs represent a radical alternative to conventional lasers, being potentially the most flexible, high power and efficient generators of tunable coherent radiation from the ultra-violet to the infrared.

FELs can have the optical properties that are characteristic of conventional lasers such as high spatial coherence and a near diffraction limited radiation beam, but FELs combine a high energy electron beam and a magnet called an undulator in such a way that all of the electrons emit light of the same wavelength at the same time, producing huge bursts of light. The latest FELs produce pulses of X-ray light that are powerful and fast enough for scientists to take stop-motion pictures of atoms and molecules in motion.

Towards the end of April this year scientists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in California, USA for the first time announced lasing of a Free-Electron Laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source1 (LCLS), in the hard x-ray at a wavelength of 1.5Å (1.5×10-10m). This was a landmark event in the history of light-source science that will open up vast new areas for scientific exploration. Experiments will start at this facility in September 2009. Another powerful new research X-ray FEL facility, the European XFEL, is currently being developed at the DESY (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron) laboratory in Hamburg for use by researchers from 2014. More information is available at the LCLS website (link opens in a new window) and the XFEL website (link opens in a new window).

About ALICE

ALICE is an acronym standing for Accelerators and Lasers In Combined Experiments. Financed by STFC with seed funding from the North West Development Agency, the project is designed to investigate next generation particle accelerator beam technology and also to produce light from both accelerated electrons and advanced lasers that can be used simultaneously in cutting edge demonstration experiments. ALICE’s technology is capable of making real-time movies of chemical reactions at the atomic level. This capability will have a major impact in research carried out in the fields of drug development, materials science for energy applications and environmentally friendly technologies.

Images

Images are available on request from the STFC press office via Julia Short.

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