Ultrafast dynamics in complex systems

自从1895年发现x射线以来，人们对物质的结构有了新的认识，这是以前用传统的光学方法无法做到的。在过去的十年中，来自不同科学领域的研究人员正在等待x射线脉冲以高时间分辨率探测动态过程。这一探索激发了x射线自由电子激光设备的建设。除了巨额的初始财政投资（数十亿美元）之外，它们的缺点是可用性有限，限制了可能的实验数量。

Since there discovery in 1895, X-rays have led to new insight on the structure of matter, previously inaccessible with conventional optical methods. Over the last decade, researchers from a broad diversity of scientific horizons are awaiting X-ray pulses to probe dynamical processes with high temporal resolution. This quest motivates the construction of X-ray Free Electron Laser facilities. Their drawback besides a huge initial financial investment (billions of dollars) is limited availability, restraining the number of possible experiments.