{"id":220418,"date":"2025-08-19T12:32:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T22:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=220418"},"modified":"2025-08-19T13:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T23:22:49","slug":"reigniting-free-electron-laser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/19\/reigniting-free-electron-laser\/","title":{"rendered":"Reigniting <abbr>UH<\/abbr>\u2019s free-electron laser: Scientists restore tool for breakthrough research"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_220419\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-220419\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-ovpri-noelo-free-electron-laser.jpg\" alt=\"people using a high tech machine\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-220419\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-ovpri-noelo-free-electron-laser.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-ovpri-noelo-free-electron-laser-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-ovpri-noelo-free-electron-laser-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-220419\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Assistant Professors Siqi Li and Niels Bidault installing a cathode in the electron gun and checking its alignment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>What once sat dormant for nearly a decade&#8212;a powerful, highly specialized instrument known as a Free-Electron Laser (<abbr title=\"Free-Electron Laser\">FEL<\/abbr>) at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M&#257;noa&#8212;is now sparking back to life, thanks to a new generation of accelerator physicists, determined to restore the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr>\u2019s brilliance and redefine its potential.<\/p>\n<h2>Why the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr> matters<\/h2>\n<p>Unlike conventional lasers, the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr> produces tunable light (light that can be adjusted to different colors or energies) by accelerating electrons through alternating magnetic fields. This unique mechanism makes it a versatile tool, allowing researchers to probe matter at the molecular and atomic scale, making it a vital tool in physics and chemistry to biology and materials science. At <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa, the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr> facility engages in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Biological research<\/li>\n<li>Materials science research<\/li>\n<li>Nanostructure wake research<\/li>\n<li>Fundamental physics<\/li>\n<li>Advanced light source development<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Since its invention, the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr> has enabled major breakthroughs in advancing scientific understanding, such as capturing ultrafast chemical reactions, determining the structure of complex proteins for drug development, and probing materials at the atomic scale to inform next-generation electronics and energy technologies.<\/p>\n<h2>Revival and expansion<\/h2>\n<p>In 2024, <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M&#257;noa took a strategic leap forward by hiring two rising stars in accelerator physics: Assistant Professor Siqi Li from the <abbr title=\"Stanford Linear Accelerator Center\">SLAC<\/abbr> National Accelerator Laboratory, and Assistant Professor Niels Bidault from <abbr title=\"European Organization for Nuclear Research\">CERN<\/abbr>, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland. Their mission: restart the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr>, upgrade its capabilities and carve a new path forward.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"blocklink\">&ldquo;Operating the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr> is like building a Swiss watch, but at the scale of a particle beam.&rdquo; &#8212; Niels Bidault<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Operating the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr> is like building a Swiss watch, but at the scale of a particle beam,&rdquo; said Bidault. &ldquo;It requires precision across every domain&#8212;electrical engineering, vacuum science, magnets, diagnostics, high-voltage systems. Everything must align within millimeters or less in order to work.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Li and Bidault are working with a team of two postdocs and several undergraduate students on tech upgrades. In addition, Li is leading a nearly $1-million Department of Energy Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research-funded project that develops a comprehensive simulation framework to fully understand <abbr>FEL<\/abbr> physics and combines traditional beam physics with cutting-edge machine learning techniques to optimize the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr>\u2019s controls.<\/p>\n<p>Related <em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> News<\/em> stories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/02\/24\/renowned-accelerator-expert-visit\/\">Renowned visiting accelerator expert praises <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s physics research innovations<\/a>, February 24, 2025<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/10\/02\/projects-earn-dept-of-energy-grants\/\">3 <abbr>UH<\/abbr> research projects earn nearly $1M by Dept. of Energy<\/a>, October 2, 2024<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more on how the <abbr>FEL<\/abbr> is helping to train the innovators of tomorrow, see <a href=\"https:\/\/ovprimulti2dev.wpengine.com\/noelo\/reigniting-uhs-free-electron-laser\/\"><em>Noelo<\/em>\u2019s 2025 cover story<\/a>. <em>Noelo<\/em> is <abbr>UH<\/abbr>\u2019s research magazine from the <a href=\"https:\/\/research.hawaii.edu\/\">Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlike conventional lasers, the FEL produces tunable light (light that can be adjusted to different colors or energies) by accelerating electrons through alternating magnetic fields.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":220419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[308,1505,1467,1363,568,124,545,9,947],"class_list":["post-220418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-innovation","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-natural-science","tag-physics","tag-physics-and-astronomy","tag-uh-manoa","tag-uh-system","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/manoa-ovpri-noelo-free-electron-laser.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220418"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220456,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220418\/revisions\/220456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}