The Conceptual Design Report of MariX (Multi-disciplinary Advanced Research Infrastructure for the generation and application of X-rays) infrastructure has been completed and the Executive Summary has been published in the Journal NIM-A.
The preparation of MariX Conceptual Design Report has been carried out during almost one year of activity by such a collaborative group belonging to INFN-Milano (Department and LASA Laboratory) and University of Milan, with several contributions from Politecnico di Milano and many other Universities and Institutions in Italy and Europe (Ferrara, Napoli, Bologna, Roma Tor Vergata, Roma La Sapienza, Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie del CNR, Université de Paris Sud) and large European Laboratories (Orsay-LAL, DESY, Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste and CERN)
The MariX infrastructure has been conceived as a pivotal element of competence and attractiveness for the future innovation district MIND, which is in its design phase at the Milan post-Expo area, and in synergy with the future Scientific Campus of University of Milan. Nevertheless, its Conceptual Design Report has been developed as a site-independent project.
Science enabled by X-rays is in urgent quest of radiation sources capable to generate ultra-fast pulses (< 10-14s), with intensity compatible to linear response regime (108 photons per pulse), and repetition rates up to 1 MHz, ideal for high statistics and pump/probe experiments with full recovery of ground state in between successive pulses. These new kind of X-ray sources would build an ideal bridge linking synchrotron light sources and Free Electron Lasers.
MariX is based upon an originally conceived cutting-edge system of combined electron accelerators at the forefront of the world-wide scenario of X-ray sources, enabling the generation of X-rays over a large photon energy domain by exploiting two different physics mechanisms, the Free Electron Laser and the Inverse Compton Scattering. The FEL generated X-ray beams, with photon energy in the 0.2-8 keV range, will have extremely short pulses (<10-14 s) with ultra-high brilliance, repeated at a regular frequency up to 1 MHz. At this temporal scale we can access visualization of excited states of proteins and macro-molecules, as well as spectroscopy of atoms and aggregated matterexcited states in all time scales and phases. X-rays generated by Inverse Compton effect will have larger photon energies, between 20 and 180 keV, easily tunable during measurements, either mono-chromatic or multi-color.These unique features will be exploited in several fields of life sciences, innovative materials, cultural heritage and paleontology, opening new scenarios and possibilities otherwise not accessible with present X-ray sources.
MariX s the first research infrastructure conceived for multi-disciplinary studies of matter based on an optimized source for ultrafast spectroscopy, which has also a very large energetic efficiency and a compact footprint, minimizing the impact on real estate requirements, besides an ideal distribution of spaces and utilities for research, optimally embedded in the frame of a scientific university campus.