Many advanced scientific and technological opportunities can be opened by the SPARX-FEL source based on:

 

 

 

 In details:

• Time-resolved X-ray techniques, based on both scattering and spectroscopy, which allow accessing time resolution ranges from pico-seconds to femto-seconds thanks to the pulsed structure of the beam. In particular:

- Femtophysics (physical transformations observed on the femtosecond time scale), for instance for direct tests of quantum mechanics, to study the dynamics of single and collective motions, phase transitions, spontaneous and induced atomic rearrangements, relaxation of systems prepared in states far from the thermodynamic equilibrium etc.

- Femtochemistry (chemical reactions on the femtosecond time scale), for instance bond breakage and recovery of atoms in molecules and solids in activated complexes, selection of particular reaction channels among those permitted, evolution of photo excited systems etc. 

• Coherent x-ray imaging, thanks to the spatial coherence typical of the laser emission. In particular:

Coherent x-ray diffraction that, for instance, enables imaging non-periodic objects on nanoscale, such as single proteins, thus overcoming the limitations imposed by the optical elements aberrations

X-ray holography, i.e. the reconstruction of the coherent scattering pattern by interference of the scattered beam with a reference beam to study, for instance, the structure of simple crystals.

• Photon hungry measurements, which require extremely high photon fluxes. As examples, the following cases can be mentioned:

- Diffraction from poor scatterers, such as systems at very low electron densities, i.e. low numerical density and/or formed by light elements (which tend to scatter inelastically), as in the case of biological systems containing much hydrogen.

- Diffraction from dilute solutions, in which the main contribution comes from the solvent and the solute signal is a slight perturbation (thus requiring a high statistics to be detected)

• Spectromicroscopy, which allows analyzing chemical elements that have energy levels in the X-ray range, this with more than spatial resolution of 100 nm and spectral resolution of 0.1 eV. 

• Structural studies of biological systems, allowing crystallographic studies on biological macromolecules