PhotonDiag2018 at DESY/European XFEL

The workshop series on FEL Photon Diagnostics, Instrumentation, and Beamline Design, PhotonDiag, is organised regularly by FELs of Europe. Following an international host, LCLS (Linac Coherent Light Source) of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in May 2017 in California, the fourth workshop in the series has been organised again by two FELs of Europe members, DESY and European XFEL from September 17-20, 2018.
Free electron lasers (FEL) for the soft and hard X-ray range are fourth generation light sources capable of producing high brightness light pulses, ten billion times more intense than those emitted by synchrotrons, and of very short duration, with a wavelength in the extreme ultraviolet to hard X-rays. A central area of research and development is focused on characterising these exceptional photon sources in all beam parameters and transporting them to the experimental stations for users.

Scientists and engineers, around 100 participants from all over the world, gathered in Hamburg and Schenefeld to discuss photon diagnostics and beamline design for free electron lasers. The invited speakers comprised many pioneers in the development of photon diagnostics and beamline design for free electron lasers as well as a number of new faces. Following two and a half days of exciting presentations and intense discussions, for the second time a half day working group meeting took place on Thursday to plan future joint activities and beamtimes at the different facilities. Wavefront sensing and damage studies of optical elements were recognised as topics of joint interest.
The FELs of Europe Award on Photon Transport and Diagnostics 2018, which was awarded for the second time, was presented to Dr. Jaromír Chalupský (Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague). Again, a Journal of Synchrotron Radiation special issue will be published in connection with the PhotonDiag and is scheduled to appear in spring 2019. The next PhotonDiag will be organised by the SwissFEL team and take place in 2020 at PSI in Switzerland.