Mid-Scale RI-2 Consortium: Compact X-ray Free-Electron Laser Project (CXFEL)

许多学科的现代科学问题越来越注重在最小的原子尺度上理解事件、变化和结构。在亚利桑那州立大学建立的紧凑型X射线自由电子激光器(CXFEL)设施将使这些高级研究成为可能，并满足广泛的美国研究界直接观察、操纵和控制复杂材料、分子和界面中的量子动力学的迫切需求。这些能力将揭示新的生物过程，实现新的节能技术，并解码可以驱动新的计算方法和新材料的量子行为。不同群体的本科生和研究生将从事这一中型研究基础设施开发工作的科学和项目管理方面的工作。基础设施培训和广泛的研究人员获得变革性新仪器的结合将服务于NSF的任务重点，以推进科学和工程的所有领域。CXFEL是一种产生亚飞秒相干X射线的新型仪器，用于分析一系列样品。CXFEL以激光技术和电子束物理学的最新进展为基础，生产出一种房间大小的X射线激光器(大约10米长)，在时间和空间上完全一致。CXFEL将独一无二地使用电子束图案提供对X射线相位的完全控制，该图案允许定制光束的时间结构，例如阿秒脉冲、非常窄的线宽以及具有不同颜色的多个脉冲之间的极其精确的计时。多个终端站将配置为支持X射线光谱分析、小角和广角X射线散射、符合阿秒动量成像和时间分辨X射线结晶学，用于生物、量子材料、原子和分子科学以及光学科学的研究。在建设过程中，复杂的机器学习软件将与硬件集成，以创建高度灵活和高效的超快科学仪器，以响应NSF的大想法，包括中型研究基础设施、生活规则、量子飞跃和利用数据革命。这些软件工具将有助于指导大数据集的获取和分析，加快实验速度并扩大能力。CXFEL项目的主要成果是建造一个拥有仪器和终端站的用户设施，包括验证算法和实验能力。由此产生的设施将向来自一系列不同科学学科的国内和国际分布的研究人员小组开放。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Modern science questions across many disciplines increasingly focus on understanding events, changes, and structures at the smallest atomic scales. The establishment of a Compact X-ray Free Electron Laser (CXFEL) facility at Arizona State University will enable these advanced studies and fulfill an urgent need in the broad U.S. research community to directly observe, manipulate, and control quantum dynamics in complex materials, molecules, and interfaces. These capabilities will reveal novel biological processes, enable new energy-efficient technologies, and decode quantum behavior that can drive new computing methods and novel materials. A diverse population of undergraduate and graduate students will be engaged in the scientific and project management aspects of this mid-scale research infrastructure development effort. The combination of infrastructure training and broad researcher access to transformative new instruments will serve the NSF mission priority to advance all fields of science and engineering.The CXFEL is a novel instrument to produce sub-femtosecond coherent X-rays for analysis of a range of samples. CXFEL builds on the latest advances in laser technology and electron beam physics to produce a room-sized X-ray laser (roughly 10m long) with full coherence in time and space. The CXFEL will uniquely offer full control of the X-ray phase using electron-beam patterning that allows customized time-structure of the beam, e.g., attosecond pulses, very narrow linewidths, and extremely precise timing among multiple pulses with different colors. Multiple end-stations will be configured to support X-ray spectroscopy, small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering, coincident attosecond momentum imaging, and time-resolved X-ray crystallography for studies in biology, quantum materials, atomic and molecular science, and optical sciences. During construction, sophisticated machine learning software will be integrated with the hardware to create highly flexible and efficient ultrafast science instruments that respond to NSF’s Big Ideas, including Midscale Research Infrastructure, Rules of Life, Quantum Leap, and Harnessing the Data Revolution. The software tools will help guide acquisition and analysis of large data sets, speeding up experiments and expanding capabilities. The primary outcome of the CXFEL project is construction of a user-facility with instruments and end-stations, including validation of algorithms and experimental capabilities. The resulting facility will be accessible to a nationally and internationally distributed group of investigators from a range of different scientific disciplines.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.