The first decade of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) has led to technological advances and scientific discoveries, but has also highlighted several facility-level challenges. Chi-Chang Kao, Director of SLAC, discusses the lessons to be learned from the first 10 years of operation and shares his thoughts on how facilities can overcome challenges facing XFEL development.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks XFEL facility directors around the world for sharing their experiences and thinking over the years and M. Dunne and J. Hastings for reading the article and the discussions on this topic. SLAC is operated by Stanford University for the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the USA. LCLS is a DOE Office of Science user facility.
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Kao, CC. Challenges and opportunities for the next decade of XFELs. Nat Rev Phys 2, 340–341 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-0196-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-0196-2