Conceptual Design Reports

The FERMI project at the Elettra Laboratory of Sincrotrone Trieste (ST) will be a national and interna-tional user facility for scientific investigations of ultra-fast and ultra-high resolution processes in materi-al science and physical biosciences with high brilliance X-ray pulses. The underlying technology of this new facility is the Free Electron Laser (FEL) preferably employing a master-oscillator-power-amplifier configuration with high gain harmonic cascades of wigglers. The full FERMI facility will consist of a linear accelerator plus two principal FEL beamlines in a new experimental hall in the complex environ-ment of a multi-beamline user facility provided by the Elettra synchrotron light source. The FERMI Project utilizes a 1.2 GeV linear accelerator, part of which is the current injector of the Elet-tra storage ring, and a new electron source based on photo-injector technology. In the near future, with the start of operation of the booster ring as the new Elettra injector, the existing linac will become avail-able as part of a dedicated driver of the free-electron laser. The addition of seven accelerating sections brings the linac energy to ~ 1.2 GeV. At this energy, and with state-of-the-art undulator technology, the free-electron laser described in this report can operate in the 100-40 nm energy region in the initial phase (FEL-I) and down to 10 nm in a subsequent phase (FEL-II).This chapter gives a broad overview of the facility and of the issues relevant to achieving the design objectives.