X-rays are presently utilized in many research and application fields, for imaging purposes and for the analysis of industrial products.
The SPARX source will be able to boost into excellence the actual applications and to steer research and application toward new objectives. There will be implications on many disciplines and innovative technologies will be developed in the field od material science, biology, medicine, non linear optics, x-ray microscopy; new methods will be developed in proteine cristallography.
SPARX source ability to deliver an enormous amount of energy on small areas will make possible to study effects that, up to now, can only be theoretically predicted. In particular interesting results are expected in the field of photochemistry, with important industrial applications. High peak brightness and short pulse duration (a few femtoseconds) will be the main characteristics of the SPARX source. By using a 2.5 GeV linear electron accelerator and two magnetic undulators it will be possible to emit radiation at 10 nm and 1.5 nm. Exploitation of 3rd and 5th harmonics will allow emission in the range between 10 and 2 nm for the first beam line and between 1.5 and 0.3 nm for the second beam line.