THE THOMX PROJECT

ThomX is a Compton source project in the range of the hard X rays (40 90 keV). The machine is composed of an injector Linac and a storage ring where an electron bunch collides with a laser pulse accumulated in a Fabry-Perot resonator. The fi nal goal is to provide an X-rays average flux of 1011 1013 ph/s. The emitted flux will be characterized by a dedicated X-ray line. Different users are partners in the ThomX project, especially in the area of medical science and cultural heritage. Their ma in goal will be the transfer of all the experimental techniques developed on big synchrotron rings to these more compact and flexible machines. The project ThomX has recently been funded and will be located on the Orsay University campus. In this article the project and its associated scientific interest are presented.