LCLS - News Archive: Towards the LCLS

News Archive

December 6-8, 2005

The semi-annual Department of Energy Review of the LCLS (Lehman Review) is scheduled to take place at SLAC.

October 27-28, 2005

The fourth meeting of the LCLS Facility Advisory Committee (FAC) is tentatively scheduled to take place at SLAC at this date.

October 24-26, 2005

The fifths LCLS week is tentatively scheduled to take place at SLAC at this time.

August 22-26, 2005

The 2005 Free Electron Laser Conference (FEL2005) will be held at Stanford University.

July 19-22, 2005

The fourth LCLS week is scheduled to take place at SLAC.

June 6-8, 2005

The International Workshop on Undulator Systems for Free Electron Lasers (WUS) is scheduled to take place at DESY.

May 10-12, 2005

The semi-annual Department of Energy Review of the LCLS (Lehman Review) takes place at SLAC.

May 5-6, 2005

The seventh regular meeting of the LCLS Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) takes place at SLAC.

April 18-22, 2005

The ICFA Commissioning Workshop takes place at Zeuthen, Germany.

April 11, 2005

Raymond L. Orbach, Director, Office of Science, DOE approves the performance project baseline range (CD-2b) for start of Title II in FY2005.

April 7-8, 2005

The third meeting of the LCLS Facility Advisory Committee (FAC) takes place at SLAC.

April 4-6, 2005

The third LCLS week takes place at SLAC.

March 29-30, 2005

The LCLS Title II AE Kick-Off Meeting takes place at SLAC.

January 26, 2005

The full amount of DOE LCLS funding for FY2005 (about $54 million) has been received at SLAC.

January 26, 2005

Dr. James Decker, the Principal Deputy Director of the DOE Office of Science, visits SLAC for the day. Part of his tour of SLAC includes the overlook to see where the LCLS will be constructed. Dr. Decker also holds program discussions with SLAC management.

January 25-27, 2005

The second LCLS week takes place at SLAC to review the project status and engineering aspects. Collaborators from APS,
LLNL, UCLA, and SLAC make presentations and receive comments on all major systems of the project from the Injector/Linac to the Conventional Facilities. Breakout sessions include the LCLS Project Office which covers Risk Management and Earned Value reviews of all subsystems; Conventional Facilities reviews Title I progress and start of Title II issues; Injector/Linac systems
looks into RF gun studies, drive laser and feedback simulations; Undulator Systems involves AC conductivity issues with material choice for the vacuum chamber and alignment/tuning budget; XTOD/X-ray End Stations discuss simulations, total energy measurement systems, spectrometer decisions, and end station shielding; Controls Systems review bunch length monitors, motor and
vacuum hardware choices, and plan to make a transparent connection between the existing SLC Linac Controls System and EPICS controls for the new LCLS systems. The LCLS Week closes out with summaries and highlights detailed by the system
managers and overall status summary by the project director. LCLS remains on track for first XFEL light in 2008 with operation scheduled by mid-2009.

January 10, 2005

Two staff members from the Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water, Tammy Cameron and Scott O'Malia, visit SLAC. In addition to briefings on the new Kavli Institute, GLAST and the International Linear Collider, and the future of SPEAR3 they hear a presentation by John Galayda on the LCLS. The Subcommittee on Energy and Water is part of the Senate Appropriations Committee and is responsible for appropriating funding for the DOE Office of Science.

January 3, 2005

DOE LCLS funding of $7.18 M has arrived at SLAC.

December 29, 2004

LCLS Long Lead Procurement funding of $7.18 M is authorized by DOE.

December 10, 2004

The Critical Decision 3a (CD-3a), permission to start long lead procurements is approved by DOE.

November 15-16, 2004

The Final LLP Pre-Production Review of the LCLS undulator takes place at the ANL.

November 12, 2004

A Department of Energy Mini-Review of the LCLS takes place at SLAC.

November 3, 2004

The LCLS Injector RF Systems Review is takes place at SLAC.

October 27-28, 2004

The sixth regular meeting of the LCLS Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) takes place at SLAC.

October 25-26, 2005

The LCLS Experimental R&D Workshop takes place at SLAC.

October 22-23, 2004

Three concurrent Ultrafast Science Workshops take place at SLAC:

Bio-imaging (organized by Keith Hodgson, Henry Chapman and Janos Hajdu),
Ultrafast X-ray Studies of Structural Dynamics (organized by Kelly Gaffney), and
Atomic Physics with Focus on Attosecond Pulses (organized by Jerry Hastings).

October 14, 2004

The review of the LCLS Magnetic Measurement Facility (MMF) takes place at SLAC.

October 12-13, 2004

The second meeting of the LCLS Facility Advisory Committee (FAC) takes place at SLAC.

September 2004

The future of ultrafast electron and x-ray studies at the LCLS received a significant boost with news of funding of a new grant from the Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences. This grant provides for funding of several key research areas which are a part of a new Ultrafast Science Center being started at Stanford in an effort that couples research activities at the LCLS
and campus departments. The Center will focus on ultrafast structural and electronic dynamics in materials science, the generation of attosecond laser pulses, and single molecule imaging during the first three years of operation. It is hoped that a future expansion of the scientific scope and effort will coincide with the completion of construction and commissioning of the LCLS in FY2007 and beyond.

September 22-23, 2004

The LCLS Diagnostics and Commissioning Workshop, chaired by Heinz-Dieter Nuhn, takes place at SLAC.

August 2004

The LCLS Division is established at SLAC. The LCLS Division is a temporary institution, which will be in place for the duration of the LCLS construction project.

August 10-12, 2004

The LCLS Lehman Review for approval of (CD-2b and CD-3a) takes place at SLAC.

July 26-30, 2004

The XFEL Short Bunch Measurement and Timing Workshop (XFEL2004) chaired by Drs. Joerg Rossbach, John Galayda, and Kwang-Je Kim takes place at SLAC. (see the first announcement)

July 23, 2004

An undulator requirements meeting takes place at the Argonne National Laboratory.

July 21, 2004

The Drive Laser Review takes place at SLAC (Orange Room, Bldg 40, Room 140).

July 8-9, 2004

The Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) for the LCLS meets at SLAC to review the Letters Of Intent (LOIs) for scientific experiments with the LCLS that had been submitted to SSRL in response to a broad call issued this past spring. The goal of this first step in the formulation of a strategy for the initial phase of the LCLS scientific program was to solicit the scientific community as broadly as possible for expressions of interest in the LCLS and its scientific program. LOIs were received in three categories - for experimental programs, for single experiments and for technical developments. The SAC reviewed all 32 LOIs that had been received and which included 256 independent investigators from 91 institutions. The SAC has just provided a written report to SSRL and LCLS management that includes specific recommendations for the scientific program to be developed for the first phase of experiments on LCLS. We are now beginning to implement this strategy and more detailed information will be forthcoming soon. Overall, the SAC and SSRL/LCLS were very pleased with the excellent response of the community and the outstanding nature of the proposals. It is a great beginning along the road of what will lead to remarkable new opportunities for scientific discovery as LCLS becomes operational in 2008.

June 28-29, 2004

The LCLS Undulator Physics and Engineering Meeting takes place at the Argonne National Laboratory.

June 7-11, 2004

The LCLS External Independent Review (EIR) takes place at SLAC to set the project performance baseline for CD-2b. The review was conducted by Burns and Roe Enterprises, Inc. (BREI), an engineering firm that specializes in large construction projects such as power plants. The 12-strong BREI team spends seven weeks reviewing the project and one week on the SLAC site, checking every aspect of the LCLS organization and preliminary design, cost and schedule. The report contains a few recommendations about the LCLS management structure and the need for a detailed ES&H analysis, but it found the overall project baseline ‘complete and reasonable.’ BREI’s report is a crucial step towards the Critical Decision 2 [Approve Project Performance Baseline] expected later this year, and the next step in DOE’s formal project review process. A concern raised in the EIR is the prospect for ramping up next year to a full staff of 125 at the three national labs participating in the LCLS construction. This is up from the 50 staff members (35 of them at SLAC) presently involved in the project, since the necessary budget increase is subject to congressional approval.

June 4, 2004

The first meeting of the LCLS Inter Laboratory Coordination Council (ILCC) takes place at SLAC.

May 24-27, 2004

The first LCLS week takes place at SLAC.

April 29-30, 2004

The initial meeting of the LCLS Facility Advisory Committee (FAC) takes place at SLAC.

March 15-16, 2004

The Instrumentation Development Workshop for Biological Imaging Experiments at LCLS takes place at SLAC.

March 3-4, 2004

The LCLS Undulator Systems Review takes place at the Argonne National Laboratory.

February 2004

Funding at $9.5 M for FY2004, the second year of LCLS PED, arrives from the Department of Energy.

January 19-20, 2004

The LCLS Undulator Diagnostics and Commissioning Workshop, chaired by Heinz-Dieter Nuhn, takes place at UCLA.The proceedings of the workshop have been published as SLAC report SLAC-R-715.

December 1-2, 2003

A meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the LCLS takes place at SLAC.

November 2003

In November 2003 the DOE Office of Science assigns high priority to the LCLS in its publication Facilities for the Future of Science / A 20 Year Outlook.

November 14, 2003

The review of the LCLS undulator takes place at the APS.

November 3-4, 2003

A review of the accelerator related part of the LCLS injector takes place at SLAC.

October 27, 2003

The internal LCLS linac review to take place at SLAC.

October 24, 2003

The internal LCLS undulator parameter workshop takes place at the APS.

September 22-23, 2003

A meeting to discuss open issues of the undulator design takes place at the APS.

August 18-22, 2003

The ICFA Future Light Sources Sub-Panel Mini Workshop on "Start-to-End Simulations of X-Ray FELs," chaired by Drs. Joerg Rossbach and John Galayda takes place at DESY-Zeuthen, Berlin Germany.

July 2, 2003

James Decker, Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), signs the LCLS "Critical Decision 2A" document, the approval of Long-Lead Procurement items (CD-2A). This formalizes the intent of the DOE Office of Science to provide $29.9M for long-lead procurements for the LCLS in FY2005. The funds are to be used to procure the undulator modules, the measurement system for the undulators, a large fraction of the LCLS injector subsystems and several critical components for the linac. These funds are in addition to the Project Engineering Design and R&D funds already planned for FY2005. With approval of CD-2A, LCLS is on track for start of commissioning the x-ray laser early in FY2007 and completion of the construction project at the end of FY2008.

June 6, 2003

Mark Reichanadter starts his job as Chief Engineer for the LCLS project.

May 21-23, 2003

The review for approval of LCLS long lead procurement items (CD-2a) by the Department of Energy Review Committee, chaired by James R. Carney, takes place in Rockville, MD from Wednesday, May 21, 2003 to Friday, May 23, 2003. The outcome of the review is very positive. The way for approval of CD-2a in June 2003 is cleared. Patricia Dehmer, Director Basic Energy Sciences at DOE, and Jeff Hoy the LCLS DOE program manager state in their concluding remarks that the LCLS has the highest priority at BES. (Final Report)

March 13, 2003

The first review of the LCLS User's Guidelines document takes place.

February 28, 2003

Funding at $5.925 M for FY2003, the first year of LCLS PED, arrives from the Department of Energy. The funding amount is less than the requested $6.0 M because of a General Reduction and Rescission.

February 28, 2003

The Environmental Assessment for the LCLS Experimental Facility (DOE/EQ-1426) for the LCLS gets approved by DOE.

February 25-26, 2003

A BESAC meeting takes place in Rockville, MD on February 25-26, 2003 (see Agenda). The summary report of the 20-Year BES Facilities Subcommittee is given by John String, EPIR and Sunil Sinha, UCSD.

February 22-24, 2003

The 20-Year BES Facilities Roadmap Workshop of the 20-Year BES Facilities Subcommittee took place in Rockville, MD on February 22-24, 2003.. The LCLS is represented by John Galayda, Jerry Hastings and Max Cornacchia. The response to the LCLS contributions is very positive. (See report)

February 3, 2003

A request for Project Engineering and Design (PED) funding in the amount of $7,500,000 and for Research and Development (R&D) funding in the amount of $2,000,000 for the LCLS appears in the President's Budget for FY 2004 as published on February 3, 2003. See page 270 of the FY 2004 BES Budget Request document . The document also puts the preliminary Total Estimated Cost (TEC) in the range of $200,000,000 to $240,000,000.

January 15, 2003

Steve Milton, ANL/APS, accepts taking over the direction of the LCLS-APS project activities from Efim Gluskin. (see APS announcement)

January 14, 2003

The final version NEPA Environmental Assessment document to DOE is submitted to DOE.

January 3, 2003

The names of new members of the LCLS Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) are published.

November 15, 2002

The November 15, 2002 issue of Science contains a report about X-Ray FELs including the LCLS.

Battle to Become the Next-Generation X-ray Source

November 1, 2002

SLAC/LCLS and DESY/TESLA sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperative research at SPPS, TTF, LCLS and TESLA itself. The signing takes place in
Washington DC.

October 23-25, 2002

The Workshop on Laser Issues for Electron RF-Photoinjectors is held at SLAC, Stanford, CA, USA.

October 16, 2002

DOE approves the Preliminary Project Baseline Range (CD-1) and the Acquisition Execution Plan for the LCLS.

October 15, 2002

The LCLS project is presented by John Galayda at an Institutional Review of SLAC by the DOE Office of Science.

October 8-9, 2002

The "Workshop on Experimental Opportunities with LCLS," chaired by Drs. Jerome Hastimgs and John Galayda, takes place at SLAC, Stanford, CA, USA. This very successful meeting is held to begin the process of creating experiment teams to propose instruments for the LCLS experimental program. More than thirty people gathered, representing most of the scientific disciplines discussed in the LCLS First Experiments document. The first afternoon was devoted to presentations of the status and plans for the LCLS as well as the policy for experimental proposals. This meeting will be one of many held as the instrument suite for the LCLS is developed. A major thrust of the workshop is to focus attention on the R&D needed for the experimental program to be most successful in the early operations phase. Two key components were highlighted: detector developments, in particular 2-D detectors for scattering experiments that will permit read-out at the LCLS repletion rate (120 Hz) and development of methods for x-ray pulse length measurement and pump laser - x-ray probe timing. Discussions also included the proposal timeline and pre-proposal submission to the LCLS Science Advisory Committee in late spring 2003.

October 2002

The Revised Technical Design Report (TDR) for the TESLA XFEL is published as: DESY 2002-167 Website: http://tesla.desy.de/new_pages/tdr_update/start.html.

September 23, 2002

Richard Bionta, LLNL, agrees to take over direction of LCLS-LLNL Project activities from Alan Wootton, who has been promoted to the post of Chief Scientist in the LLNL Physics and Advanced Technology Division.

September 20, 2002

The Project Execution Plan for the Project Engineering and Design Phase for the LCLS gets approved by DOE.

September 12, 2002

BES presents the LCLS Preliminary Project Baseline Range (CD-1) to Raymond L. Orbach, Director, Office of Science. Included in the presentation are talks by John Galayda and Joachim Stohr.

September 10, 2002

The International Executive Committee of the Free Electron Laser Conference has chosen SLAC for the site of the 2005 conference.

September 3, 2002

The LCLS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) publishes the report of the fifth meeting.

September 1, 2002

Lowell Klaisner leaves the LCLS project to join the GLAST project at SLAC.

July 22-23, 2002

An LCLS project update is presented by John Galayda at the meeting of the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) at Gaithersburg, MD.

July 15, 2002

The DESY laboratory at Hamburg, Germany, is designing a 1-Å SASE FEL Facility as part of the TESLA linear collider project. The Technical Design Report was published in March of 2001. The German Science Council expressed strong support for the linear collider for particle physics and the X-ray laser laboratory at DESY in its evaluation statement on July 15, 2002.

July 1-6, 2002

The "27th ICFA Advanced Beam Dynamics Workshop: "The Physics and Applications of High Brightness Beams, " chaired by Drs. James Rosenzweig and Luca Serafini is held at Chia Laguna, Sardinia, Italy.

June 21, 2002

The Summer 2002 issue of the SLAC Beam Line periodical contains articles about the development of powerful new sources of x-ray radiation for use in advanced studies in the physical sciences including x-ray FELs.

Synchrotron Light Sources

May 10, 2002

The May 10, 2002 issue of Science contains a physics article about X-Ray FELs including the LCLS.

The Ultimate Bright Idea

May 3, 2002

DOE/BES provides guidance on the LCLS project funding to the LCLS management. Start of construction is delayed by one year to the beginning of FY2006. In the next three fiscal years (FY2003, FY2004 and FY2005) there is expected to be funding for Project Engineering and Design (PED), Research and Development (R&D), and procurement of Long Lead Components (LLP).

May 1-4, 2002

The ICFA Workshop on Future Light Sources, chaired by Dr. Kwang-Je Kim is held at SPring-8, Japan. The proceedings are available on CD-ROM from SPring-8.

April 23-25, 2002

The Department of Energy (DOE) Review (Lehman Review) of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Project, chaired by Dr. Daniel Lehman, takes place at SLAC. The initial closeout report of the review committee states that "The project is in very good shape!!

SLAC has demonstrated that it can successfully accomplish projects of this scale and over many years has successfully met its commitments to DOE/BES and to its BES user community.

The project has experienced, motivated and high quality leadership and staff. The management approach being implemented will serve the project well.

There is still work to do and documentation to firm up before the various key decisions can be made. It may be that the new project requirements in DOE will result in progress towards construction at a slower pace than the Laboratory and staff would like. This should not be seen as a fundamental issue. It is up to the leadership to plan accordingly and to continue to motivate the staff and drive progress.

This project is heading in a successful direction. Keep up the good work!"

(see the final Review Committee Report)

April 19, 2002

Funding at $1.5 M for FY2002, the fourth year of LCLS R&D, arrived from the Department of Energy.

April 14-17, 2002

The workshop on "New Opportunities in Ultrafast Science Using X-rays" is held at Napa, CA.

April 8, 2002

The LCLS Conceptual Design Report is completed and published as SLAC report "SLAC-R-594".

February 8, 2002

The third regular meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the LCLS takes place at SLAC. Roger Falcone, UC Berkeley, is introduced as the new SAC Chairman.

February 4, 2002

The Project Engineering and Design (PED) funding for the LCLS in the amount of $6,000,000 appears in the President's Budget for FY 2003 as published on February 4, 2002. See pages 90 and 91 of the Biological and Environmental Research and Basic Energy Sciences Detailed Budget Justification document. The document also puts the preliminary Total Estimated Cost (TEC) in the range of $165,000,000 to $225,000,000.

January 14-18, 2002

The Workshop on "coherent Synchrotron Radiation (CSR) and its Impact on the Beam Dynamics of High Brightness Electron Beams," chaired by Drs. Joerg Rossbach and John Galayda takes place at DESY-Zeuthen, Berlin Germany.

January 10, 2002

The January 10, 2002 issue of nature contains a news feature article about the LCLS.

news feature

January 10, 2002

DOE moves the start of construction of the LCLS by one year to October 2004. The reason for this is the connection between the project planning requirements (and schedule implications) of DOE 413.3 and the DOE budget submission schedule.

December 10-11, 2001

The fifth meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee for the LCLS takes place at SLAC. The LCLS team makes presentations covering all aspects of the design, from the photo-injector to the FEL physics as well as the bunch compressor for short bunch R&D. The review emphasizes progress in understanding the experimental results obtained from the Gun Test Facility, as well as theoretical and experimental investigations of coherent synchrotron radiation and its deleterious effects on the quality of the LCLS beam. The committee is impressed with, and indeed excited by, the work presented by the LCLS team. They applaud the success of the VISA experiment and the progress in start-to-end simulations of LCLS performance. The committee recommends that the LCLS team devote some effort to the determination of the FEL performance characteristics over a wider range of operating conditions. The LCLS team receives high praise for a tremendous amount of progress (see TAC Report).

September 11, 2001

A review of progress on the 120 Hz gun design takes place at SLAC. The proceedings are published as LCLS Technical Note, LCLS-TN-01-8.

September 10, 2001

A group at DESY, Germany, achieves saturation with the TESLA Test Facility FEL (TTF-FEL) in SASE mode at a wavelength of 98 nm with a saturation length of approximately 12 m.

September 10, 2001

A mini-review of the LCLS undulator takes place at the APS.

September 1, 2001

Personnel changes in the LCLS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC): D. Attwood asked to be relieved of his TAC responsibilities. The LCLS management team expresses its gratitude for D. Attwood's contribution to the LCLS as a member of the TAC. J. Rossbach has agreed to join the TAC and to participate in the next meeting. His experience with the TTF laser and the TESLA FEL design effort will strengthen the TAC.

August 9, 2001

A meeting to discuss the latest results of the VISA data analysis takes place at SLAC.

August 2-3, 2001

An LCLS project update is presented by John Galayda at the meeting of the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) at Gaithersburg, MD.

June 13, 2001

James Decker, Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), signs the LCLS "Critical Decision 0" document (CD-0). This document identifies the "Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) project as a unique opportunity for a major advance in carrying out" the mission of the Office of Science. The approval authorizes the Stanford DOE Site Office to proceed with the development of the Conceptual Design for the project.

May 4-5, 2001

The Workshop on "Scientific Applications of Ultra-fast, Intense Coherent X-Rays" is organized by Drs. Eric Rohlfing and Pedro Montano, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) / Office of Basic energy Sciences (BES), and held at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC. The Workshop Report is presented at 2-3 August 2001 BESAC meeting.

April 30, 2001

A VISA Collaboration Meeting takes place at Brookhaven to evaluate the results of the VISA experiment.

April 23, 2001

Dr. John N. Galayda starts his job as Project Director for the LCLS project.

March 16, 2001

The VISA FEL experiment demonstrates a gain of 2.2×10⁷ with an exponential growth gain length of 18.5 cm. The gain is calculated as the factor of SASE radiation over the spontaneous seed light that is present at 1 field gain length after the undulator entrance. The experiment shows saturation at about 3.6 m from the undulator entrance. The experiment is carried out at the ATF at BNL by a collaboration from BNL, LLNL, SLAC and UCLA.

March 2001

Funding at $1.5 M for FY2001, the third year of LCLS R&D arrives from the Department of Energy.

March 2001

The Technical Design Report (TDR) for the TESLA Collider and FEL Project is published at DESY.

March 1-2, 2001

The 2nd Workshop on FEL Methods and Instrumentation to be used with x-ray free-electron laser sources including the LCLS is held at SLAC. The workshop is chaired by Drs. John Arthur (SLAC) and Thomas Tschentscher (DESY).

The workshop considers methods and instrumentation for exploiting the sub-picosecond pulse and extreme peak power aspects of FEL x-ray sources.

About 40 scientists attend from the US, Europe and Japan. It is clear from the presentations and discussion that there is widespread scientific interest in the special characteristics of x-ray FEL radiation, and that progress is being made toward developing practical techniques for exploiting these characteristics. In particular, much progress has been made in the ability to measure the time correlation between x-ray and laser pulses with sup-picosecond resolution. Also, progress is being made in theoretical modeling of the effects of FEL x-ray pulses on materials.

The final conclusion of the workshop is that progress in developing FEL methods and instrumentation is limited by funding, rather than by a lack of exciting ideas and interested scientists.

February 26, 2001

The X-Ray Laser Physics at the LCLS is presented at a meeting of the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee at Washington, DC.

February 26, 2001

On February 26, Keith Hodgson and Ewan Paterson, Associate Directors for the SSRL and SLAC Technical Divisions, announce the appointment of Dr. John N. Galayda as Assistant Director for the Linac Coherent Light Source program. This is a joint appointment reporting to both Dr. Hodgson and Dr. Paterson. John will begin in this new role at SLAC in April 2001.

John has had a distinguished career in particle accelerators and synchrotron light sources. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society "for his key role in the design, construction, and commissioning of the National Synchrotron Light Source and the Advanced Photon Source." He will be leaving Argonne National Laboratory where he has served as the Deputy Associate Laboratory Director for the Advanced Photon Source. John has been active in Argonne's participation in the LCLS program and we all welcome him to SLAC and look forward to his leadership in this exciting
endeavor. For details see SSRL Headlines Vol. 1, No. 8 February, 2001 and
Advanced Photon Source NEWS March 16, 2001.

January 12-13, 2001

The fourth bi-annual meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee for the LCLS takes place at SLAC. The LCLS team makes presentations covering all aspects of the design, from the photo-injector to the FEL physics and the x-ray optics. The outcome of the meeting is quite positive. The TAC expresses its satisfaction at the progress that has been made in all areas. The highlights of the presentations are the observed high gain, with evidence of saturation, at the LEUTL facility at the APS, and the computer modeling of both the electron beam from the gun to the end of the undulator and of the FEL radiation generated by such beam. The computer modeling work is the result of the constructive and close collaboration between Argonne National Laboratory, SLAC and the UCLA Particle Beam Physics Laboratory. The Committee expresses concern on the fact that the experimental results at the Gun Test Facility (GTF) have not yet progressed to the point where the achievement of the LCLS goals can be demonstrated or inferred. The Committee acknowledges that the SLAC Management has taken appropriate steps to increase its support of the GTF (see the TAC report.)

January 3, 2001

Art Toor (LLNL), leader of the LCLS x-ray optics effort, retires. His position in the LCLS organization is taken over by Alan Wootton, also from LLNL.

December 15, 2000

A one day meeting with presentations about the LCLS FEL Physics takes place at SLAC.

November 15, 2000

A local review of the LCLS Low Level RF System takes place at SLAC. The report of the committee is available online. The proceedings are published by the American Institute of Physics, AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 581, Melville, New York, 2001.

October 10-11, 2000

An important event takes place at the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) Meeting in Washington, DC. Among other things, BESAC advises the Department of Energy on the scientific merit of newly proposed research facilities. The committee hears the scientific case for the Linac Coherent Light Source or LCLS that is hoped to be built at SLAC in the near future. At its Wednesday meeting BESAC votes unanimously to support moving forward with the LCLS conceptual design, pending positive peer reviews. (See Summary) The positive BESAC response on the scientific case is an important milestone toward LCLS construction. The presentations are available online.

September 23, 2000

A group at the Argonne National Laboratory achieves first saturation at the Low Energy Undulator Test Line (LEUTL) for a wavelength of 530 nm.

September 10-15, 2000

The 19th ICFA Beam Dynamics Workshop on Future Light Sources: "Physics of and Science with the X-Ray Free-Electron Laser" takes place at Arcidosso, Italy. (The proceedings are published in AIP Conference Proceedings 581, S. Chattopadhyay, M. Cornacchia, I. Lindau, and C. Pellegrini, eds., New York 2001.ISBN 0-7354-0022-9, ISSN 0094-243X.)

September 4-5, 2000

TDR workshop on "Life Sciences" Location: DESY Website: http://www-hasylab.desy.de/workshops/Programm_Life.html

September 4-5, 2000

TDR workshop on "Atomic, Molecular and Cluster Physics with Short Wavelength Radiation from Free-Electron Lasers" Location: DESY Website: http://www-hasylab.desy.de/workshops/cluster.htm

September 1, 2000

The report "LCLS - The First Experiments, " describing the scientific case of the LCLS is delivered to DOE, is published as SLAC-R-611.

August 13-14, 2000

The TDR workshop on "Nonlinear Optics, Quantum Optics, and Ultrafast Phenomena" is held at DESY.

August 10-11, 2000

The TDR workshop on "Chemical Applications of the Free-Electron Laser Facility" is held at DESY.

July 30-31, 2000

The SPIE conference on "FEL Optics and Instrumentation," chaired by Drs. D. Mills, H. Schulte-Schrepping, and J. Arthur, is held at San Diego. Proceedings: SPIE vol. 4143.

July 20-21, 2000

The TDR workshop on "Hard Condensed Matter" is held at DESY.

July 14, 2000

The second regular bi-annual meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) takes place at SLAC.

June 26-27, 2000

The TDR XFEL workshop on "Methods and Instrumentation for an X-FEL," chaired by Dr. Jerome Hastings is held at DESY. Proceedings: TESLA-FEL 2000-6, DESY.

May 19-20, 2000

The third bi-annual meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) for the LCLS takes place at SLAC.

April 21, 2000

The LCLS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) publishes the report of its second meeting.

March 30-31, 2000

The first regular bi-annual meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) for the LCLS takes place at SLAC. Six proposed experiments are identified. Teams are set up for five of the experiments to provide initial written drafts of their reports to the committee by their next meeting on July 14, 2000. The final report is to be submitted to DOE by August 30, 2000. DOE will then have six weeks to review the report before the BESAC meeting on October 24-25, 2000. The plan is that the team leaders will present the experiments at that meeting. BESAC will report its findings on the scientific merit of the proposed experiments back to DOE. DOE will then make the decision on whether or not to give authorization to proceed with a formal Conceptual Design Report (CDR) by issuing a Critical Decision 0 (CD-0.)

The six experiments selected for DOE review include the following (non-prioritized order):

-Structural Studies on Single Bio-molecules and Particles
-Warm Dense Matter
-High Field Physics
-Nano-scale Dynamics in Condensed Matter
-Femtosecond Chemistry
-High Field X-Ray Laser Physics

The Scientific Advisory Committee also recommended that rather than designing the proposed LCLS end stations around the space constraints within the experimental yard, other options should be explored, including locating the end station 300 meters (or more) away from the source on the other side of the hill.

February 28, 2000

DOE requests that a document be prepared by September 1, 2000 defining the Scientific Case of the LCLS. The document will be presented to BESAC on October 24-25, 2000 in Washington, DC.

February 11-12, 2000

The second bi-annual meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) for the LCLS took place at SLAC.

January 21, 2000

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the cooperation in x-ray FEL development between the DESY, KEK and SLAC laboratories is signed at SLAC.

December 9, 1999

A KEK - LCLS Cooperation Meeting takes place at KEK.

October 15-16, 1999

The Workshop on the Science and Instrumentation for the Linac Coherent Light Source organized by Drs. Ingolf Lindau and John Arthur is held at SLAC.

October 15, 1999

The organizing meeting of the LCLS Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) takes place at SLAC.

October 1999

Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) for the LCLS R&D program are signed by the collaborating institutions.

September 1999

Funding at $1.5 M for FY2000, the second year of LCLS R&D arrives from the Department of Energy.

September 23-24, 1999

The X-Ray FEL Theory and Simulation Workshop organized by H.-D. Nuhn and C. Pellegrini is held at SLAC.

September 17, 1999

A mini-workshop to support LCLS Photoinjector R&D organized by J. Clendenin is held at SLAC.

August 27, 1999

The "Research and Development Plan for the Linac Coherent Light Source" is submitted to the Department of Energy.

August 25, 1999

A DESY - LCLS Cooperation Meeting takes place at DESY.

August 13, 1999

The LCLS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) publishes the report of the first meeting.

July 14-15, 1999

The first bi-annual meeting of the LCLS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) takes place at SLAC.

June 18, 1999

Funding at $1.5 M for FY1999, the first year of LCLS R&D arrives from the Department of Energy.

April 26, 1999

An organizational structure to support the LCLS R&D proposal is established.

April 8, 1999

The Brookhaven National Laboratory joins the LCLS collaboration.

April 7, 1999

Vinod Bharadwaj gives the presentation "The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)," at Fermilab

April 6-9, 1999

The "ICFA Workshop on Future Light Sources," chaired by Mike Knotek, is held at the Argonne National Laboratory.

April 6, 1999

The Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences indicates to the LCLS collaboration that it intends to fund LCLS R&D at a rate of $1.5 M annual for the next four years. The completion of a Conceptual Design Report (CDR) is scheduled for May 2001, the Lehman Review for June 2001.

February 27, 1999

The Report of the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee Panel on Novel Coherent Light Sources is published with a very positive recommendation towards the LCLS. The panel is chaired by Dr. Stephen R. Leone. Charge and report available under "1998 Charges" at Website: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/bes/BESAC/reports.html

January 19-21, 1999

The BESAC Panel on Novel, Coherent Light Sources meets at the Gaithersburg Hilton in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

January 12-14, 1999

The Workshop on Scientific Applications of the LCLS chaired by Drs. I. Lindau (SSRL/MAX-Lab) and J. Arthur (SSRL) is held at SLAC.

December 18, 1998

A first revision of the LCLS Design Report is published.

December 1998

The Argonne National Laboratory joins the LCLS collaboration.

October 18-19 1998

The workshop on "Current Development of Free Electron Lasers" is held at Lund, Sweden. Proceedings: Edited by Sverker Werin, (NTMX-7028) Lund University, 1998 Website: http://www.maxlab.lu.se/maxlab/conference/roundtable/workshop.htm

July 23-24, 1998

The SPIE conference "Time Structure of X-ray Sources and its Applications," chaired by Drs. Andreas Freund, Henry Freund, and Malcolm Howells is held at San Diego. Proceedings: SPIE vol. 3451.

April 1998

The "LCLS Design Study Report" edited by Dr. Max Cornacchia is published as SLAC-R-521.

March 1998

A group from UCLA, LANL, the RRC-Kurchatov Institute and SSRL measures very large output intensities corresponding to a gain larger than 10⁵ for a single pass free-electron laser operating in the self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) mode at 12 µm. The group also observes and analyses intensity fluctuations of the SASE radiation intensity in the high-gain regime. (PRL paper)

November 10-12, 1997

A panel of experts chaired by Dr. Joe Bisognano (Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility) reviews the LCLS design in November 1997. The report of the Review Committee finds no "show-stoppers" in meeting the design specifications and stated that "the design presented, establishes the feasibility of such a project."

November 1997

The report of the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) Panel on DOE. Synchrotron Radiation Sources and Science (the Birgeneau Report) places R&D for the LCLS as one of their highest priorities. More explicitly, the report recommends that another panel, comprised of potential users and builders of fourth generation light sources, be convened to advise Basic Energy Sciences on the development and application of such sources. The panel is chaired by Drs. Robert J. Birgeneau and Z. X. Shen. The charge to the panel and the panel's report are available under "1997 Charges" at Website: http://www.sc.doe.gov/production/bes/BESAC/reports.html

July 31 - August 1, 1997

The SPIE conference "Coherent Electron-Beam X-Ray Sources: Techniques and Applications", chaired by Andreas Freund, Henry Freund, and Malcolm Howells is held at San Diego. Proceedings: SPIE vol. 3154.

January 23-24, 1997

The "International Workshop on the Interaction of Intense Sub-Picosecond X-Ray Pulses with Matter" chaired by Drs. R. Tatchyn (SLAC), J. Arthur (SLAC), G. Materlik (DESY), J. Feldhaus (DESY) and A. Freund (ESRF) is held at SLAC. Proceedings: SLAC-WP-12.

August 1996

The LCLS Design Study Group under the leadership of Dr. Max Cornacchia is established to produce the first LCLS Design Report.

February 29 - March 1, 1996

The "International Workshop on Generation and Application of Coherent X-Rays" is chaired by M. Kihara is held at KEK, Tsukuba. (Proceedings: edited by Shigeru Yamamoto, Japanese Society for Synchrotron Radiation Research, Tokyo, 1996)

January 22-25, 1996

The "ICFA Workshop on 4th Generation Light Sources," chaired by Jean Louis Laclare is held at the ESRF. The proceedings are available from the ESRF. A summary is available at Website: http://www.indiana.edu/~icfa/icfa10/icfa10-ws10.html A more extensive presentation of this workshop is available at http://www.aps.anl.gov/conferences/FLSworkshop/proceedings/papers/inv01.pdf

June 1995

The Conceptual Design Report "A VUV Free Electron Laser at the TESLA Test Facility at DESY" is published as TESLA-FEL 95/03.

May 1994

The report "Free Electron Lasers and Other Advanced Sources of Light: Scientific Research Opportunities" is published as Committee of the National Research Council chaired by Donald Levy. National Academy Press, Washington, 1994.

May 27-28, 1994

The first Japan/US/Germany Collaboration Meeting takes place at SLAC. Representatives from the DESY laboratory in Germany indicate their plans of integrating an LCLS type x-ray FEL into their linear collider project, TESLA.

February 12, 1994

The workshop on "Scientific Applications of Coherent X-Rays" chaired by Drs. John Arthur, Gerd Materlik and Herman Winick is held at SLAC to discuss the use of 4 to 0.1 nm radiation. The consensus of the workshop was that there is a significant interest in the use of coherent x-rays at wavelengths below about 0.2 nm. The workshop changes the target wavelength of the LCLS from 4 nm to 0.15 nm. (Proceedings: SLAC-R-437.)

May 21-22, 1993

The workshop "Towards Short Wavelength Free-Electron Lasers," chaired by Ilan Ben-Zvi and Herman Winick is held at BNL. (Proceedings: BNL-49651.)

October 21, 1992

The workshop on "Scientific Applications of Short Wavelength Coherent Light Sources" chaired by Drs. William Spicer, John Arthur and Herman Winick is held at SLAC to discuss the use of 4 nm radiation. Many of the workshop participants feel that the large increase in power, brightness and coherence (particularly the peak values of these quantities during the short pulse) would require new experimental approaches as well as open new possibilities. A major concern, especially among biologists, was the rate at which a sample would be destroyed by such a beam. The large number of photons (~10¹⁴) delivered in a single sub-picosecond pulse opens the possibility of acquiring information on a time scale short compared to the time for damage to manifest itself. For example, it is possible that a hologram of a live biological sample could be acquired in a single shot, before the damage to the sample would change the structure.
Several speakers pointed out that this source would provide enough coherent photons to permit techniques currently employed in the visible part of the spectrum, such as non-linear optics, to be extended to the x-ray region. Also, the extremely short pulse allows time resolved studies of fast chemical reactions and phase transitions. (Proceedings: SLAC Publication 414)

February, 1992

The LCLS Technical Design Group is established and the name Linac Coherent Light Source is created by Dr. Herman Winick. The group works for 4 years to investigate the critical issues of the design of a short wavelength FEL using the SLAC Linac. The initial effort targets a wavelength of 4 nm in the so-called water window between the absorption edges of carbon and oxygen. This wavelength regime is of great interest for biologist because it allows the analysis of live samples in an aqueous environment.

February 24-27, 1992

The first "ICFA Workshop on Fourth Generation Light Sources" chaired by Drs. Max Cornacchia and Herman Winick is held at SLAC. (Proceedings: SSRL Publication 92/02.) A presentation by Dr. Claudio Pellegrini, "A 4 to 0.1 nm FEL Based on the SLAC Linac" creates the idea of the LCLS.