Despite the COVID-19 pandemic the Elettra synchrotron radiation source and the FERMI free-electron laser were able to continue operation without any interruption. The reduced mobility of European users, however, has substantially affected the number of proposed experiments that could be carried out. Increased reliance on sample mail-in with experiments carried out by the facility staff for the external users coupled with enhanced capabilities for data communication and remote operation of the instrumentation were used to reduce the impact, but approximately 56% of the user beamtimes in 2020 had to be postponed.

In 2020 the Elettra source operated with 97% efficiency with 28 beamlines and experimental stations open to international users. Important upgrades have been performed on several beamlines. As examples, we mention the new energy analyzer of the Spectroscopic PhotoEmission and Low Energy Electron Microscope of the Nanospectroscopy beamline, that brought the energy resolution in the imaging mode down to 100 meV and to 60 meV in the spectroscopy mode, the unique twin fixed-gap adjustable phase undulator that more than doubled the operating energy range of the TwinMic beamline, new state-of-the-art detectors for the Xpress and XAFS beamlines.

The development of the new Elettra 2.0 storage ring continued, with upgrade programs already launched for the SuperESCA, BaDElPh, Spectromicroscopy, XAFS, Nanospectroscopy, TwinMic, and Xpress beamlines, and the construction of a first new beamline for Coherent Diffraction Imaging (CDI). The new 6-bend achromat enhanced lattice (S6BA-E) will decrease the emittance by a factor of 50 relative to the current storage ring, with an increase in brightness of the current insertion devices by a factor of 30 at 1 keV and by a factor of 180 at 10 keV. The coherent component of the radiation will increase by a factor of 60 at 1 keV. The increase in collimation, brightness and coherence afforded by the new Elettra 2.0 source will be exploited to enhance analytical capabilities for spatially inhomogeneous samples and install additional new beamlines for -SAXS, -XRD, -XAFS and -XRF. Studies conducted in collaboration with the Department of Energy of the U.S. have shown that it is theoretically possible to install on Elettra 2.0 RF deflectors (crab cavities) that would provide a subset of pulses of single picosecond duration among the conventional pulses and offer users the option of exploiting the picosecond time resolution or the high average brightness. White papers by SLAC and Fermilab proposing normal conducting or superconductive technology, respectively, for the implementation of the crab cavities are currently being assessed by an international panel.

The FERMI FEL-1 and FEL-2 user facilities remain the only EUV and X-ray FELs worldwide exploiting external seeding. The resulting pulse-to-pulse wavelength, linewidth and intensity stability, together with the possibility of performing two-color and four-wave mixing experiments, make the FERMI source currently unique in the international panorama. The six operating beamlines DiProI, EIS-TIMER, EIS-TIMEX, LDM, MagneDyn and TeraFERMI, together with the two table-top complementary laser facilities T-Rex and CITIUS continued operating throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, although some 44% of the approved experimental proposals by international users had to be postponed. New experimental methods have emerged, such as transient grating techniques in the EUV and soft-X-ray range. Exploiting the higher harmonics of FEL-2, wavelengths as short as 1.6 nm were successfully used to excite the L2,3 edges of Fe and Co. Another breakthrough arrived this year, with the synthesis of an attosecond pulse train. Using FERMI, the phase relationship between the pulses could be measured and controlled, allowing “sculpting” of the light to produce an arbitrary wave form. This is a “game changer” in the field of short-wavelength, non-linear optics.

Alfonso Franciosi, a national of Italy and of the U.S., is the current Chairman of the Board and CEO of EIlettra Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A. and a Professor of Physics with the University of Trieste. He is responsible for the operation of the 2.4 GeV, third-generation synchrotron radiation source Elettra and of the new free-electron laser source FERMI. He directs a staff of 400 scientists, engineers and support personnel, who conduct in-house research and assist over 2000 international users of synchrotron radiation per year. Such users have at their disposal 38 operating beamlines on the Elettra storage ring and on the FERMI free electron laser and several support laboratories. The publication list of professor Franciosi includes more than 300 articles in refereed international journals on the physics and materials science of semiconductors, semiconductor heterostructures, superlattices, quantum wells, metal/semiconductor contacts, thin film nucleation and growth, lasers and optical modulators, synchrotron radiation spectroscopies and microscopies. Professor Franciosi has been the advisor of more than 40 doctoral and master students in Italy and in the U.S. His former students are now employed by industrial concerns such as Intel, 3M, IBM, Xerox, Cypress Semiconductor Corporation, etc.