FERMI: Present and Future Challenges

We present an overview of the FERMI (acronym of Free Electron laser Radiation for Multidisciplinary Investigations) seeded free electron laser (FEL) facility located at the Elettra laboratory in Trieste. FERMI is now in user operation with both the FEL lines FEL-1 and FEL-2, covering the wavelength range between 100 nm and 4 nm. The seeding scheme adopted for photon pulse production makes FERMI unique worldwide and allows the extension of table top laser experiments in the extreme ultraviolet/soft X-ray region. In this paper, we discuss how advances in the performance of the FELs, with respect to coherent control and multi-colour pulse production, may push the development of original experimental strategies to study non-equilibrium behaviour of matter at the attosecond-nanometer time-length scales. This will have a tremendous impact as an experimental tool to investigate a large array of phenomena ranging from nano-dynamics in complex materials to phenomena that are at the heart of the conversion of light into other forms of energy.