Synchrotrons and X-Ray Free Electron Lasers

Week 1: General intro of x-rays, synchrotrons, and XFELs:
Introduction including example; X-rays and society; What are synchrotrons and XFELs and why are they so in demand? X-rays and the electromagnetic spectrum.

Week 2: Interactions of x-rays with matter
Interaction of x-rays with matter and the atomic form factor; Relating f to refraction, reflection, and absorption, including subsequent processes (fluorescence, photoelectrons, Auger electrons, secondary electrons)

Week 3: Basics of synchrotron (“machine”) physics 
Why accelerated charged particles generate electromagnetic radiation; Properties of relativistic electrons and radiation they emit; Using magnetic fields to steer electrons; RF sources and bunching.

Week 4: Basics of synchrotron (“machine”) physics, continued
Flux, emittance, brilliance, peak brilliance, diffraction limit, and coherence; Magnet lattice: dipoles, quadrupoles, hexapoles, undulators and wigglers; XFEL architecture, SASE, typical properties of XFEL pulses

Week 5: X-ray optics and beamlines
Front-end, mirrors, monochromators, harmonic suppression; Microfocus optics (CRLs, FZPs); X-ray detectors including area detectors and sources of noise; Detectors for XFEL experiments

Week 6: Diffraction and scattering
Why use diffraction? Phase problem; Diffraction at synchrotrons – advantages with examples; Brief recap of description of crystals – Bravais lattice, basis, Miller indices, Bragg’s law, and the Ewald sphere; Typical setups for single-crystal and powder diffraction; Protein crystallography; SAXS and GISAXS

Week 7: UV and x-ray spectroscopy 
Need for synchrotron radiation when scanning photon energy. Subsequent processes and their detection; XANES, EXAFS, and STXM with brief examples; STXM and XRF; PEEM/XMCD/XMLD; UPS/ARPES/XPS/HAXPES

Week 8: Imaging techniques 
Tomography basics; Phase-contrast XTM and time-resolved XTM; CXDI; Ptychography; Concluding remarks and link to Part II

Week 9: Phasing techniques in macromolecular crystallography  MX has a broad spectrum of tools for tackling the phase problem in structural solutions, including molecular replacement (MR), multiple isomorphous replacement (MIR), multiwavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD), and single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (SAD). These are described in this week’s videos.