European XFEL starts commissioning of the world’s largest X-ray laser
European XFEL, a large international research facility located in the metropolitan area of Hamburg, Germany, began the commissioning of its X-ray laser yesterday. Around 350 guests from science, politics, administration, the diplomatic corps as well as employees of European XFEL, and its closest partner institute DESY celebrated the completion of the 3.4-kilometre long underground photon source.
The commissioning will now take place over the next few months. External scientists will be able to perform experiments at the facilitiy for the first time in summer 2017. The X-ray laser will then generate extremely short and bright X-ray light flashes that will enable new views of the structure and fast processes in the nanoworld. Applications range from structural biology, medicine, chemistry, physics, and materials science to environmental and energy research.
The celebration took place on the new research facility’s campus in Schenefeld. As a symbolic act, representatives of the eleven partner countries mounted one of the final still-missing pieces of the X-ray laser: a nearly two-metre-long beamline tube. Prof. Martin Meedom Nielsen, Chairman of the European XFEL Council said: „All the member states are very happy about the great achievements that have brought us to where the commissioning of a world leading facility for X-ray science is about to start.“
The celebration took place on the new research facility’s campus in Schenefeld. As a symbolic act, representatives of the eleven partner countries mounted one of the final still-missing pieces of the X-ray laser: a nearly two-metre-long beamline tube. Prof. Martin Meedom Nielsen, Chairman of the European XFEL Council said: „All the member states are very happy about the great achievements that have brought us to where the commissioning of a world leading facility for X-ray science is about to start.“
The European XFEL participates in the German-Swedish Röntgen-Ångström Cluster. For more details on the commissioning, check out www.xfel.eu.
Katharina Fegebank, Senator for Science, Research, and Equality for the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and Dr. Piotr Dardziński, Under-Secretary of State of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, bolt in a section of beamline in the European XFEL tunnel, signifying the start of commissioning of the facility.
From left: Laurent Toulouse, Consul General of the French Republic in Hamburg; Prof. Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors; Dr. Piotr Dardziński, Under-Secretary of State of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education; Prof. Massimo Altarelli, Managing Director and Chairman of the Management Board of European XFEL; Katharina Fegebank, Senator for Science, Research, and Equality for the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg; and Dr. Beatrix Vierkorn-Rudolph, Director, Directorate: Large Facilities, Basic Research at the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
(Copyright: European XFEL)