This summer course is the 4th of the successful series (2021, 2022, 2023) organized jointly by Aarhus University and European XFEL/Hamburg University.

With an innovative teaching approach, the course features a Virtual Lab software to bring students close-to-real experience of the large-scale facility at European XFEL. The course will first give an introduction to the brightest light source in the world, X-ray free electron laser (XFEL), with the emphasis on the unique science opportunities offered by XFEL, compared with synchrotron X-ray and neutron scattering. It will cover the theories and experimental methods of important techniques based on XFEL, including Time-resolved-X-ray Emission Spectroscopy experiments and Time-resolved Femtosecond X-ray Diffraction experiments. Students will be able to perform experiments and collect data in the Virtual Lab with realistic settings with XFEL. They will analyze the collected data and compare with the published real-world data in the literature.

An important part of the course will take place at at EuXFEL and DESY in Hamburg, students will visit the European XFEL and tour the experimental beamlines including MID, HED FXE, SPB/SFX, SCS, SQS. There will be opportunities for questions and discussion with beamline scientists. In addition, the on-site tours to synchrotron beamlines will be also organized to visit PETRAIII and FLASH at DESY Hamburg. Besides virtual-lab experiments, exercises, on-site visits, and lectures, students will also learn writing beamtime research proposals and get insight into the peer review process. Since it is a joint course with Hamburg University/EU-XFEL, local students from Hamburg University will participate the course as well. Social activities will be organized to create good opportunities for networking with international students and researchers.This course may also provide additional opportunities to perform hands-on femtosecond X-ray experiments at the FemtoMAX beamline at MAXIV, Lund, Sweden.