The Alvra experimental station at the Swiss X-ray free-electron laser, SwissFEL, investigates ultrafast dynamics in chemical and biological systems using X-ray scattering and spectroscopy techniques. A key feature of Alvra is its unique capability to perform time-resolved X-ray emission and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering in the tender X-ray regime, currently not available at other XFEL endstations, combined with simultaneous access to X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray solution scattering. Together with sub-35 fs time resolution enabled by advanced timing diagnostics, this positions Alvra as a versatile instrument for ultrafast chemical dynamics in the liquid phase. Here we cover the various technical aspects of the beamline and experimental station, and present some examples of experimental results measured during the first years of SwissFEL commissioning and user operation.
Cirelli et al. (2026) studied this question.