Faculty of Science
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About the FELIX Laboratory

FELIX stands for: Free-Electron Lasers for Infrared eXperiments.
At the FELIX Laboratory we develop and exploit intense, short-pulsed infrared and Terahertz free-electron lasers.

The infrared radiation of the FELIX lasers interacts with molecules and materials. This can reveal detailed information about their 3D structure, functional properties and electronic properties.

laserhal

The laserpark where the intense light is generated

Insight of new (functional) materials and (bio)molecules

Research projects at the FELIX Laboratory include systems such as (bio)molecules, clusters and complexes as well as semiconductors, metals and magnetic materials.The information obtained may serve as a fingerprint to identify species, determine molecular structure, probe quantum coherence, flip spins, identify chemical bonds etc. A few examples:

Identification metabolic biomarkers

We work together with the Radboud university medical center (Radboudumc) on the discovery of new biomarkers for metabolic diseases. Taking advantage of the selectivity and sensitivity when combining FELIX infrared ion spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, we can provide a structural fingerprint of small molecules in biological samples, like blood or urine. This new and unique methodology is generating exciting new possibilities to better understand metabolic diseases and develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.

Revolutionizing data storage efficiency with FELIX light

To reduce the energy consumption for data storage, we study alternative ways to
manipulate, process and store data. We aim to achieve low energy, all-optical switching of magnetic bits using free-electron laser light. This could lead to magnetic memory devices that use 6-8 orders of magnitude less energy.

fig_nature_communications_kimel_feb2019_1_1_1

High demand

FELIX unique characteristics make it a highly demanded user facility; yearly receiving typically a hundred researchers from all over the world to perform their experiments. Very regular users maintain their own (more or less) permanent set-ups which may also be used by external users.

Watch this movie made by the Radboud University to get an impression of what we do: