Felix - from Laser to User Facility

Phase I of the FELIX project involved the demonstration of rapid tunability over a range of IR wavelengths covering at least 8-80 mum. This phase was completed successfully by the recent commissioning of FEL-2 for the 5-30 mum range; FEL-1 had already been covering the 16-110 mum range since summer 1991. In Phase II of the project, the emphasis will be on user applications. The potential user interest has been assessed at a User Workshop. At present, 30 proposals for experiments from five different disciplines have been received. Details are given on the user requirements for wavelength, bandwidth and pulse structure. User operation will commence in September and is expected to reach full capacity by spring 1993.