New EU project: Guiding light for the world’s brightest light sources
EUCALL will build bridges between major laser and X-ray research centres
For the past half-century, two special kinds of light have changed the landscape of research.
Advanced visible-spectrum optical lasers have propelled studies into ultrafast processes, new
materials, telecommunications, and many other fields, while intense X-rays produced at
synchrotrons have helped image tiny structures and otherwise invisible parts of matter, enabling
huge leaps in biochemistry, pharmacology, and materials science. In recent years, new developments
have enhanced the generation of X-rays at large-scale optical laser and accelerator facilities,
requiring large international research centres. The European Union is now funding a 7 million-euro
effort to bring these research centres together through the European Cluster of Advanced Laser Light
Sources (EUCALL) project. The project will be managed by European XFEL, an X-ray free-electron laser
currently under construction in the Hamburg area of Germany.
Thousands of scientists in biomedicine, physics, materials science and many other fields from around
the world come to these centres to use the unique state-of-the-art equipment available there. A
research infrastructure (RI) is a large-scale facility that provides scientists access to technologies that
are otherwise unavailable at a science laboratory. Particle accelerator-driven facilities called
synchrotrons have been providing ultrabright X-rays, and more recent X-ray free-electron lasers have
been pushing the limits of accelerator-based technologies to generate ultrashort pulses of laser-like
X-ray light at unprecedented brightness. In recent years, specialized optical lasers have been used to
generate intense X-rays as well; the new availability of such sources to the scientific community has
led to the construction of RIs. EUCALL aims to help both accelerator- and laser-driven X-ray facilities
even better serve the scientific community.
Within the EUCALL project, the two types of large-scale X-ray RIs in Europe collaborate for the first
time in a comprehensive way on technical, scientific, and strategic issues. One of the project’s main
goals is to make substantial scientific and technological contributions through new synergies
between laser-driven and accelerator-driven X-ray RIs. Under EUCALL, the RIs can work together on
common methodologies and research opportunities, potentially sparking new scientific
investigations, as well as new applications and private sector innovation, and develop tools to sustain
this interaction in the future. The project will allow the involved RIs to provide scientists from around
the world better access to highly sought-out X-ray facilities.
To accomplish these goals, the EUCALL partners will work together on strategic and technological
developments that can be used at all facilities, along with better protocols to enable scientists to
make the best possible use of limited experiment time.
Three major international RIs have a key role in EUCALL: European XFEL, a 3.4 km-long X-ray freeelectron laser that will open in 2017 and use ultrabright X-ray laser flashes to investigate nanoscale
particles, ultrafast processes, and extreme states of matter; the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI), a
trio of cutting-edge high-power optical laser laboratories in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and
Romania that will become operational in 2018; and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
(ESRF) in Grenoble, France, which is one of the most prominent X-ray research centres in the world.
Also involved are five other institutes: DESY, which operates the FLASH and PETRA III X-ray user
facilities, in Hamburg , Germany; ELETTRA , which operates the FERMI free-electron laser, in Trieste,
Italy; Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, which operates high-power optical laser facilities and
a free-electron laser, in Germany; Lund University, which is building the MAX-IV synchrotron, in
Sweden; and the Paul Scherrer Institut, which is building the SwissFEL X-ray free-electron laser, in
Villigen, Switzerland.
All of these RIs have their foundations in broad experience developed at a large number of optical
laser- and accelerator-based X-ray laboratories. Therefore, EUCALL also includes the existing EU
collaborations of these facilities, LASERLAB-Europe and FELs of Europe, as well as three partners that
work closely with ELI.“EUCALL enables optical laser- and accelerator-based X-ray facilities in Europe
to develop common strategies and new technologies to help our scientific users engage even more
research possibilities”, says European XFEL Scientific Director Thomas Tschentscher, who will act as
EUCALL project coordinator. “Their implementation will help to maintain a leading role for European
research in many critical areas.”
“Coinciding with the International Year of Light, EUCALL is the first serious effort to bring together
scientific communities who have been using X-ray light in parallel to each other, and from different
scientific and technological backgrounds”, says ELI Director-General Wolfgang Sandner. “ELI highly
welcomes the increased research opportunities and innovation potential that will arise from this
synergy, to the benefit of its European and international users.”
-- -- -- -The funding from the EU will be used by each RI to support some of the development costs on new
technologies, conduct efficiency studies, and hire new staff assigned specifically to EUCALL tasks.
Among these tasks will be four research initiatives focusing on new hardware and software for the
two laser light source communities. The proposed technology development will address hardware
and software advances. A first research goal is to develop a simulation platform that will allow users
to more accurately model their experiments before coming to a facility for beamtime. The aim is to
make user proposals and experiments more focused so that scientists can make the best possible use
of limited experiment time. Another research goal is to develop an adaptable software and firmware
package that can handle the massive data throughput generated by imaging detectors operated at
the high or ultrahigh repetition rates of the X-ray and laser flashes at these facilities.
The other two research areas look to develop common scientific hardware. One aim is to develop an
efficient method for users to identify positions of samples to be targeted with laser light through use
of electron and light microscopy. A final goal involves developing a suite of advanced X-ray beam
diagnostics to accurately measure the incident photon intensity and the wave front of coherent X-ray
beams, as well as to precisely determine the X-ray pulse arrival time on the sample for ultrafast
experiments.
European XFEL will host a EUCALL kick-off meeting on 29–30 October 2015 in Hamburg. Beyond the
three-year scope of EUCALL, the project looks to establish a long-term collaboration between the
involved RIs, with the aim of further developing common capabilities and fostering closer
cooperation.