Towards the use of X-ray Free-Electron Laser electron beams to study Quantum Chromo-Dynamics

X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) utilize high-density and high-energy electron bunches which are well-suited to produce Compton back-scattering radiation. Here we study back-scattered radiation pulses produced by the interaction of XFEL electron beams and an optical laser. We discuss cost-effective setups to study such processes, taking advantage of the existing conventional as well as proposed XFEL infrastructure. We estimate parameters of possible experiments and compare them with other projects under construction.