Development and Automation of the First Costa Rican End Station at a Free Electron Laser, Dedicated to Active and Biomaterials Research

The advancement of modern materials and new processes often relies on experimental capabilities that surpass the limits of traditional laboratory equipment.1-3 Large-scale spectroscopy facilities provide unparalleled spectral and spatial ranges, as well as intensities which are not accessible in bench-top infrastructure, for the characterization and development of advanced materials. These facilities also serve as global hubs for excellence and highly trained talent. Free-Electron Lasers (FELs) offer experimental conditions that cannot be achieved with conventional light sources. They provide extremely bright, coherent, and ultrashort pulses, offering extraordinary capabilities to observe atomic and electronic changes as they happen, allowing direct insight into ultrafast processes such as phase transitions, charge movement, and structural rearrangements. The high intensity of FEL radiation also enables atomic-level imaging of non-crystalline or rapidly evolving materials, and the study of nonlinear effects and extreme matter states that arise only under such intense irradiation. These capabilities allow researchers to uncover the fundamental relationships between structure, dynamics, and material behavior, achievable exclusively with an FEL. The Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society hosts one of these facilities, the Free-Electron Laser (FEL), which is a linear accelerator that generates very bright and adjustable light, in the infrared region. Unlike conventional lasers, the FEL uses a stream of high-speed (relativistic) electrons as its active medium.4
To the best of our knowledge, no existing Latin American end stations operate at a FEL infrastructure. This project proposes the development and automation of an end station and will explore its part donation to Costa Rican universities and foundations, establishing the first international Latin American laboratory of its kind in the region and enabling advanced research on active and biomaterials.

To establish the first Costa Rican beam and end station at the Free Electron Laser (FEL) of the Max Planck Society (MPS).