Re: [ccp4bb]: New X-ray source? - or Summer silly season?

["David J. Schuller" <djs63@cornell.edu>]

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On Fri, 2 Aug 2002, Ethan Merritt wrote:

> I received a flyer by mail today which rather enigmatically claims to
> announce a "pulsed tunable monochromatic X-ray source" [...]
> "equal to a synchrotron at only a fraction of the cost of a beamline"
> 
> Essentially no real information about this device is provided,
> and the web site belonging to the company http://www.mxisystems.com
> gives hardly any more [1].  
> 
> So I'm just curious.  DId everyone else also receive this teaser?
> Anyone have a clue just what this device is or does?
> A free electron laser maybe?
> 
> [1] Oh, except for the tidbit that this marvel may cost US$2.5Million,
> so I guess the 'fraction' of a beamline cost is a on the order of one 
> third to one half.


it sounds like fascinating stuff.  they have a 'specs' page on their web 
site:  http://www.mxisystems.com/specs.html . and probably to be fair you 
should throw in a fraction of the synchrotron cost along with the beamline 
cost.

i think the synchrotron in my backyard can do significantly better on 
X-ray divergence than ~ 1 degree, and I'm sure we can generate more than 
one pulse every 100 seconds.  i don't think they are equal to a 
synchrotron at present, but then they are apparently still at the 
prototype stage (Vanderbilt FEL Center) and fishing for venture capital.  
I don't know what performance they might eventually achieve.

just remember, if we criminalize Terawatt lasers, only criminals will have 
them.

cheers,

=======================================================================
Life is a struggle, not against sin, not against the Money Power, not 
against the malicious animal magnetism, but against hydrogen ions.
                                                - H.L. Mencken
=======================================================================
                        David J. Schuller
                        modern man in a post-modern world
                        MacCHESS, Cornell University
                        djs63@cornell.edu