Paper detail

Conceptual design of an undulator system for a dedicated bio-imaging beamline at the European X-ray FEL

We describe a future possible upgrade of the European XFEL consisting in the construction of an undulator beamline dedicated to life science experiments. The availability of free undulator tunnels at the European XFEL facility offers a unique opportunity to build a beamline optimized for coherent diffraction imaging of complex molecules, like proteins and other biologically interesting structures. Crucial parameters for such bio-imaging beamline are photon energy range, peak power, and pulse duration. Key component of the setup is the undulator source. The peak power is maximized in the photon energy range between 3 keV and 13 keV by the use of a very efficient combination of self-seeding, fresh bunch and tapered undulator techniques. The unique combination of ultra-high peak power of 1 TW in the entire energy range, and ultrashort pulse duration tunable from 2 fs to 10 fs, would allow for single shot coherent imaging of protein molecules with size larger than 10 nm. Also, the new beamline would enable imaging of large biological structures in the water window, between 0.3 keV and 0.4 keV. In order to make use of standardized components, at present we favor the use of SASE3-type undulator segments. The number segments, 40, is determined by the tapered length for the design output power of 1 TW. The present plan assumes the use of a nominal electron bunch with charge of 0.1 nC. Experiments will be performed without interference with the other three undulator beamlines. Therefore, the total amount of scheduled beam time per year is expected to be up to 4000 hours.