The SwissFEL soft X-ray free-electron laser beamline: Athos.

The SwissFEL soft X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) beamline Athos will be ready for user operation in 2021. Its design includes a novel layout of alternating magnetic chicanes and short undulator segments. Together with the APPLE X architecture of undulators, the Athos branch can be operated in different modes producing FEL beams with unique characteristics ranging from attosecond pulse length to high-power modes.

Structural determination of a short-lived excited iron(II) complex by picosecond x-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Structural changes of the iron(II)-tris-bipyridine ([Fe(II)(bpy)(3)](2+)) complex induced by ultrashort pulse excitation and population of its short-lived (< or =0.6 ns) quintet high spin state have been detected by picosecond x-ray absorption spectroscopy. The structural relaxation from the high spin to the low spin state was followed over the entire lifetime of the excited state.