NSF Funds Compact X-ray Free Electron Laser
A series of magnets used in Arizona State University’s Compact X-ray Light Source (CXLS), a precursor to the planned Compact X-ray Free-Electron Laser.
(ASU)
The National Science Foundation announced last week it will contribute $91 million to construction of a Compact X-ray Free-Electron Laser (CXFEL) at Arizona State University.
This room-scale instrument will be dramatically smaller than existing X-ray free electron laser facilities, which use kilometer-scale beamlines, and will be able to produce tunable attosecond x-ray pulses. ASU plans to contribute about $80 million to the project, building on a prototype device that just began operation.
CXFEL is the first award NSF has made in the latest funding round of its Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-2 program, which supports projects that cost between $20 million and $100 million. The program has funded five other projects since it launched in 2020 and plans to announce additional awards in the coming months.
The CXFEL project previously received $4.7 million from NSF’s Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-1 program, which supports projects costing less than $20 million as well as design studies for larger projects.
