MUR International Project FERMI

The International Project FERMI started in 2015, year of conclusion of the Flagship Project, with the aim of constantly improving the FERMI performances to address the needs of the international users‘ community and preserving its leading position in the European and Global scientific landscapes. The ultra-short, ultra-bright, almost Fourier transform-limited FEL light pulses produced in seeded mode can be synchronized to an external laser with unprecedented precision and controlled in phase, coherence, wavelength(s), duration, polarization with exceptional reproducibility and stability in intensity, wavelength and line width. FERMI offers unparalleled opportunities for exploring the structure and transient states of condensed matter, soft matter and low-density matter using a variety of diffraction, scattering and spectroscopic techniques. The excellence of the FERMI scientific programme is secured by the successful collaboration between beamlines and accelerator scientists on the continuous upgrade of the source performances driven by the needs of the most prestigious international research groups. The ultimate goal of the current major upgrades, expected over a time span of about nine years, consists in extending the spectral range of FERMI to cover the water window and beyond, as well as to reduce the minimum pulse duration down to below the characteristic lifetime of core holes resonances in light elements. The uniqueness of FERMI performances, arising from the control of the microbunching formation in the electron beam by the seed laser, will be preserved in the ongoing developments.

Other Italian public research institutions involved

The International Project FERMI consolidates the collaborations initiated within the Flagship Project with INFN, ENEA, CNR, INSTM and several Italian universities exploiting at best the acquired know-how and the previous experiences.

International scientific and technical collaborations

• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, USA;
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA;
• University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles, USA;
• UChicago Argonne, LLC as operator of Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, USA;
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, USA;
• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford, USA;
• RADIABEAM Technologies, LLC, Santa Monica, USA;
• Stiftung Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, Germany;
• Freiburg University, Freiburg, Germany;
• MAX-lab - Lund University, Lund, Sweden;
• Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Villigen, Switzerland;
• University of Nova Gorica, Nova Gorica, Slovenia;
• Instrumentation Technologies d.d., Solkan, Slovenia;
• Max-Bohr Institute, Berlin, Germany;
• The Russian Research Centre ‘Kurchatov Institute’, Moscow, Russia.

Strategic objectives

• Continuous upgrade of FERMI and its integration into the multidisciplinary international Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste research centre of excellence thanks to the successful collaboration between the international communities of users, beamline and accelerator scientists.
• Improvement of the FERMI performances and reliability in special configurations, with the target of extending the FEL spectrum to shorter wavelengths and the light pulse duration to the sub-femtosecond range to respond to the needs of the international scientific community.
• Broadening of the services open to the international user community in the fields of nano-sciences and nano-technologies with the offer of innovative and enhanced analytical techniques for the structural and electronic characterization of materials, with particular emphasis on dynamical, time-resolved studies.
• Coordination and integration of FERMI in the European and Global FEL facilities landscape.
• Development and transfer to industry of new technologies with the aim of attracting new companies to Italy, creating spin-offs and strengthening the role of specialized industry in the world market of light sources.
• Training of specialized support staff thanks to the ongoing technical-scientific developments and encouragement of mobility from academia towards industry.