Calls for Proposals

The Alvra instrument specializes in ultrafast dynamics in chemical and biological systems, specifically in solutions, liquids, or crystals in viscous media. Alvra is equipped for X-ray spectroscopy (XAS, XES, RIXS), liquid scattering, and serial femtosecond crystallography measurements, as well as flexible user-provided setups. The details are described below.

General information about the Alvra endstations can be found at: Alvra
For questions and further information about Alvra contact: Dr. Camila Bacellar

Bernina is equipped with flexible but precise positioning hardware for diffraction on solid state samples, which may also support user-supplied hardware. The instrument can interchange two endstations, which can be configured for different sample and detector degrees of freedom. Bernina features very versatile pump laser excitation from UV to single cycle THz pulses.

The  flexible Bernina endstation platform hosts following standard configurations

• Six circle kappa surface diffractometer, equipped with area detector on a 2-circle detector arm (XRD). Sample in air or N2-cryostream atmosphere (80-500K stream temperature). Pump laser wavelengths from UV to THz. An optional polarisation analyzer can be used upon early request.
• Vacuum chamber setup for low sample temperature (down to ~5K), high electric field THz pulse excitation, and tender X-ray range experiments. It is advised to explore the compatibility of proposed experiments with the chamber geometry before proposal submission. For details about the chamber please refer to https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/ac08b5
• Grazing incidence cryo vacuum chamber for pump/probe diffraction at low sample temperature (<10 K; 7.5 K shown at cold finger) and large diffraction angular range. The sample position is actively stabilized with respect to the FEL beam in grazing direction (<1µm). 

Experimental ideas, especially with needs for custom or special setups are encouraged to be cross-checked for feasibility with the instrument staff in good time before the proposal submission deadline.

New developments

• New standard setup: Grazing incidence chamber GIC for pump/probe diffraction at low sample temperature and large diffraction angular range (see above).
• Circularly polarized THz pulses at specific frequencies (opt.rect.), generated with monochromatic zero order l/4 waveplates.
• Carrier envelope stabilized mid-Ir pulse laser source in 10–18 µm wavelength range (100-250 fs pulse length). 
• Visible short pulse pump laser source (500 – 750 nm wavelength; ≤ 25 fs fwhm) by Non-Collinear Optical Parametric Amplifier (NOPA).
• Load lock for High-field THz cryo chamber for quick sample exchange and transfer from inert atmosphere (under commissioning, usable upon request).

A single pulse timing diagnostics is typically used for time delay feedback and time delay measurement. The diagnostics works reliably at Si-111 monochromatic and pink FEL beam and typically provides pulse length limited time resolution (shown down to ~20 fs fwhm pulse lengths). 

Pilot joint call with Surface diffractometer at the Swiss Light Source 

With the ongoing restart of the SLS-2 Synchrotron facility at PSI, we are opening a new pilot option in this call for Bernina proposals, to express interest in an additional experiment at the Surface diffractometer of the ADvanced DiffrAction for Materials Science Beamline (ADDAMS). The instrument is comparable in X-ray diffraction geometry to the Bernina diffraction endstations and allows therefore to collect complementary static experimental data which should support the science case of the SwissFEL Bernina Proposal.  

Interest and justification for such an experiment should be expressed in the main proposal text. Additionally, a single-page proposal to ADDAMS needs to be added to the proposal.  Please follow this template as wordfile and upload as pdf to the proposal (max. 3 MB filesize). 

The best Bernina proposals which benefit from a supporting ADDAMS experiment, will be considered for a short beamtime slot (~24h) during the pilot operation phase of Swiss Light Source (earliest 2nd half 2025).  

General information can be found at: Aramis Bernina Experimental Endstations
For questions and further information about Bernina, please contact: Dr. Henrik Lemke

The Cristallina-MX experimental station is a fixed-target setup designed for high-throughput SFX and SFX pump-probe. 

We two styles of fixed-targets: the PSI MISP (MIcro-Structured Polymer) (Carrillo et al., 2023) and the MPI SOS (Sheet-On-Sheet) chip (Doak et al., 2024). An EKSPLA nanosecond OPO can be used for pump-probe measurements and has now been commissioned for both the MISP and SOS chips.

Our standard SFX beamtime configurations are: X-ray photon energy of 12 keV with standard bandwidth (0.15 % SASE), nano-second laser excitation between 280 nm - 700 nm (if required), Jungfrau 8M detector and either the MISP or SOS chips. For short (single-shift), non-pump-probe experiments please apply using the PCS proposal option described below.

General information can be found at the Cristallina-MX project page.
For questions and further information about Cristallina-MX, please contact: Dr. John Beale

The Cristallina-Q team has recently commissioned an experimental station named Ultralow-T Vectormagnet that enables resonant and non-resonant X-ray diffraction in high-magnetic fields and sub-Kelvin temperatures. It includes a dedicated cryostat with beryllium and mylar windows for the incident and the diffracted beams in the horizontal diffraction plane. The cryostat is installed on a heavy-load diffractometer to orient the sample with respect to the vertical axis (θ), as well as to position the detector at the Bragg angle (2θ) and at a suitable distance from the sample. The beam size on the sample can be varied by means of bendable KB focusing mirrors. The station can be placed at custom distances from the last KB mirror.

The ultralow-T sample environment requires mounting the sample and closing the cryostat at least 1 week before the beamtime start, to allow for cooling to the base temperature and offline tests. Depending on the requested measurement temperature and the sample properties, reduced repetition rates and/or high attenuation have to be used to ensure recovery of sub-Kelvin temperatures between subsequent X-ray pulses. Because of the latter, it is advantageous, although not mandatory, to operate the ARAMIS beamline in the ultrashort pulse mode such that that thermal and electronic modification of the sample can be outrun.

The capabilities of the Ultralow-T Vectormagnet are restricted in terms of the maximal θ range, due to mechanical limitations, and to higher photon energies to cope with in-air propagation and due to absorption of the X-ray windows.

General information about the Cristallina-Q experimental station can be found at: Cristallina-Q.

Because of the novelty of this experimental station, the inherent challenges due to the ultralow-T environment, and operational limitations, proposers must contact the Cristallina-Q team well ahead of submission.

For these proposals, no optical pump laser will be offered and the beamlines will only operate with the following parameters: 

Notes for proposal applications

• Please apply using the standard application pipeline on DUO but with the protein crystal screening proposal word file template - please add ‘PROTEIN CRYSTAL SCREENING’ to the front of your proposal title.
• Please include:
  • A representative image of protein crystals with a scale bar
  • Any available information about the unit cell dimensions, symmetry and diffraction quality of the crystals
• In your proposal please indicate at least one of the following points that applies:
  • The project requires diffraction data from crystals that are too small and/or radiation sensitive to be measured at a synchrotron source.
  • The project aims to collect time-resolved diffraction data using fixed targets on the nanosecond to millisecond time-scale in future (Cristallina applications).
  • The project aims to collect time-resolved diffraction data using an HVE on the femtosecond to millisecond time-scale in future (Alvra applications).

The Maloja instrument specializes on studying ultrafast processes in atomic, molecular, non-linear and chemical sciences. The flexible setup allows for a variety of spectroscopy and imaging approaches. The following experimental capabilities are offered for this call as standard configurations. 

If your experiment requires significant modifications to these setups or if you plan on incorporating additional experimental capabilities, it is mandatory to discuss your plans and the feasibility with the instrument staff. 

The natural jitter between X-ray and optical pulses is ~150fs (FWHM), which can be improved with an arrival time monitor.

Restrictions for hazardous samples apply, please consult with the Maloja contact before submission in case you plan to use such substances.

General information about the Maloja endstations can be found at: Maloja
For questions and further information about Maloja contact: Dr. Kirsten Schnorr

The Furka experimental endstation, located at the soft x-ray Athos beamline of the SwissFEL, is dedicated to the study of quantum materials using time-resolved Resonant Inelastic and Elastic X-ray Scattering (tr-RIXS and tr-REXS) as well as X-Ray Absorption (tr-XAS) spectroscopy.

The endstation is equipped with at 4-circles UHV diffractometer (Tmin=25 K), a set of x-ray detectors (APDs) rotating on two independent circles around the sample, a rotable Jungfrau 2D detector and a 6 meter long RIXS spectrometer. Sample cleaving in the load lock (room temperature, vacuum 10-7 mbar) is available. The THz radiation is focused using a parabolic mirror mounted on a motorized manipulator (5 DOF) located inside the vacuum chamber.

Natural jitter between X-ray and optical pulses ~150fs (FWHM). For higher time resolution experiments, a single pulse timing diagnostics, for jitter and drift corrections, can be used  in TR-XAS and TR-REXS (please contact instrument responsible for more info).

General information about the Furka endstations can be found at: Furka 
For questions and further information about Furka contact:  Dr Elia Razzoli