Physics Colloquium – Sabine Botha

Bringing XFEL Science to the Laboratory: Commissioning the Compact X-ray Light Source at Arizona State University

Sabine Botha, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physics
Arizona State University

Compact accelerator-driven X-ray sources are emerging as a new class of laboratory-scale facilities capable of delivering capabilities traditionally available only at large national user facilities. At Arizona State University, the Compact X-ray Light Source (CXLS) is currently undergoing commissioning, while its successor, the Compact X-ray Free Electron Laser (CXFEL), is under construction. Together, these instruments aim to bring ultrashort, high-brightness X-ray pulses into the university laboratory, enabling new opportunities in structural biology, medical imaging, atomic, molecular and optical physics, and the study of condensed matter and quantum materials.

In this talk, I will present the current status of commissioning experiments at CXLS, including protein crystallography and time-resolved materials experiments. I will discuss our first macromolecular crystallography measurements and successful protein structure determination, as well as ongoing efforts to establish time-resolved diffraction capabilities for probing ultrafast structural dynamics in materials.

These unique X-ray sources produce data streams that differ substantially from those encountered at traditional synchrotrons or XFEL facilities, requiring new approaches to data processing and analysis. To address these challenges, we are developing dedicated data analysis tools for CXLS and CXFEL. These tools include AI/ML-based optics alignment, crystal hit finding, automated diffraction image classification and sorting, noise suppression strategies for weak diffraction signals, and analysis pipelines for small-angle X-ray scattering. These experimental and computational developments aim to enable real-time experimental feedback and scalable offline analysis, ultimately helping establish compact X-ray sources as powerful and accessible platforms for next-generation X-ray science.

Acknowledgements: This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation Bio Directorate under midscale research infrastructure Grants 2153503 and 1935994.