Conference Service Mandl

abstract: One of the prioritized areas of scientific application for the upcoming European XFEL is the study of small Quantum Systems (SQS) of atomic, molecular, cluster, or crystalline character in gas phase absorption experiments. This area of science has been described in the Technical Design Report for the European XFEL (available under www.xfel.eu) and includes studies of extremely dilute systems, of particles in traps, of non-linear processes using one- and two color techniques as well as of ultra-fast processes in the gas phase. In this regime, targets can be prepared in various forms of gas streams, jets, ion beams or ensembles in traps. Experiments detecting particles (electrons, ions or neutral fragments), scattered or absorbed photons have been proposed. Most of the experiments require the use of soft x-ray radiation. The European XFEL currently foresees to provide soft X-ray radiation using its SASE 3 undulator delivering soft X-ray photons from as low as ~250 eV to as high as ~3100 eV to at least two photon end stations. The SQS instrument shall allow exploiting a variety of different techniques and will require certain infrastructure to be available. In the particular area of ionic targets the need to build up suitable target preparation infrastructures available as an integral part of the XFEL facility was emphasized in the TDR.

The workshop will bring together scientists interested in performing experiments on SQS using and developing appropriate instrumentation. It is the purpose of the workshop to review the areas of application of the SQS instrument, to discuss the requirements of the various experimental techniques with respect to x-ray FEL beam delivery and finally to initiate activities and collaborations to develop the instrumentation and facilities needed for investigating SQS at the European XFEL.