FELICE—the free electron laser for intra-cavity experiments

At the FOM Institute “Rijnhuizen” a new FEL light source is presently under development, which is dedicated to fundamental research of the structure and dynamics of (bio)molecules, clusters, and nano-particles demanding extremely high luminosity. This Free Electron Laser for Intra-Cavity Experiments (FELICE) is designed to generate pulsed infrared radiation, tunable in the region of 3–100 μm, which is often referred to as the ‘molecular fingerprint’ region. The temporal structure of the optical beam will consist of few-microseconds long, 1 GHz bursts of ps-micropulses, which are repeated at 10 Hz. FELICE should allow intra-cavity experiments with optical beam energies in the interaction point of some 10 J in a few microseconds, which is a factor of 100 higher than currently available for the users. Two permanent intra-cavity set-ups are planned: a Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance mass spectrometer (FT-ICR) with appropriate ion sources and a pulsed molecular beam (PMB) set-up coupled with a mass spectrometer.