Joint Research Activities

The objective of the Joint Research Activities (JRAs) within the I3 Project ELISA are
- to enhance the effectiveness of the facilities in serving users and in particular transnational users
- to contribute to the development of new technological tools for synchrotrons and FELS beamlines.
The strategy of spreading JRAs among three different and important domains has the objective to maximise and diversify the impact on synchrotron and FEL science. In each case, the objectives would be difficult or even impossible to reach without the coordinated approach under the present proposal. And the impact of the results would be limited to one facility instead of being available to all of them throughout Europe.

In the domains of FEL components, JRA1 ”FELINS”, FEL INstrumentation and Synchronization, will assess the needs for more efficient diagnostic tools for Self Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) and seeded FELs, with reliable measurements of the intensity, conherence, spectrum and time structure. It will also target the conception of synchronization tools between the DELs and other laser systems, RF fields and electron bunches. Finally, it will propose specialized instruments to measure the beam profile and optimize the electron.photon overlap for single-shot time-resolved measurements.
SASE and seeded FELs are boradly considered as important potential futue assets for our domain and the proposed technical improvements are imporant if not essential. The innocative solutions proposed by this JA are particularly effective to tackle these issues.

JRA2 “HIZPAD”: High-Z semiconductor sensors in X-ray Pixel Detectors addresses the demand in the domain of Detectors which is traditionally one of the most important for synchrotron and FEL science: for many years, the source technology was ahead of detectors limiting the effective exploitation of the facilities. The increasing awareness of this problem led to substantial improvements and to the present JRA 2. The target is the development of innovative technologies for high-Z semiconductor sensors – GaAs and Cd(Zn)Te – with substantial advantages with respect to the current Si sensors. These include better detection efficiency and radiation tolerance for use with high energy X-ray imaging. This JRA will blend the careful monitoring of existing and developing techniques and materials with innovative technological efforts. The main objective is to increase the detection efficiency by a factor of 2,5 at 20 keV and 10 above 40 keV. The deliverables include detector demonstrators.

JRA3 “NanoFOX”, Nanofocusing Optics for X-rays, in the domain of Optics is an effective response to the increasing importance of microscopy in synchrotron and FEL science. This requires substantial improvements in the X-ray focusing devices: the JRA targets the milestone of 10 nm spatial resolution. It deals with reflective, refractive and diffractive X-ray optics and both soft and hard X-rays. It is based on sound techniques that are partially developed but require further improvements and optimization – in particular concerning better process control, yields and volumes. It also involves innovative approaches such as multilayer coatings via improved differential deposition technology as well as substantial improvements of the X-ray testing facilities – with specific emphasis on metrology.\\ The final objective will be achieved after a series of reasonable intermediate milestones/deliverables that will already be very useful for practical applications. In fact, each intermediate step towards better spatial resolution and better overall performances will open up new opportunities in nanosciences and biomedical research.