The advances in designing novel X-ray sources will allow for time resolved X-ray scattering and diffraction on a femtosecond to millisecond time scale. Unlike large scale facilities such as synchrotrons, intensive lasers can be used for the generation of short X-rays pulses in a setup similar in size to the commercially available laboratory X-ray sources. The femtosecond laser driven emission of X-ray pulses from plasma (XPS) offers higher time resolution for fast kinetic measurements than continuously emitting sources. The ELI beamlines facility is planned to start operation by the end of 2016 in Dolni Brezany, Czech Republic. It will give a unique advantage for time resolved crystallography and wide angle scattering for a crystalline samples, including proteins. The generated pulses will span approx. 100 fs with a repetition rate of 1 kHz. The scattered and diffracted by the protein crystal X-rays will be counted using a DECTRIS Eiger 1M area detector which operates at the same frame rate as the source, i.e. 1 kHz. Such setup can be combined with several pump probe lasers to study the fast kinetics for example in proteins relevant to plant photosystems or vision in animals. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the fields and of the ELI beamlines facility regular discussions between experts in the field of high power laser-matter interaction and potential users, as well as young scientists, are organized.
1. B. Rus ; F. Batysta ; J. Čáp ; M. Divoký ; M. Fibrich, et al. "Outline of the ELI-Beamlines facility", Proc. SPIE 8080, Diode-Pumped High Energy and High Power Lasers; ELI: Ultrarelativistic Laser-Matter Interactions and Petawatt Photonics; and HiPER: the European Pathway to Laser Energy, 808010, 2011; doi:10.1117/12.890392