The European X-Ray Free Electron Laser

The European X-Ray Free Electron Laser is a new (in construction) research facility in Germany near Hamburg, using an free electron laser which produces high intensity, coherent x-ray pulses at kHz repetition rate. Their intensities are several magnitudes brighter than those achieved today by conventional synchrotron light source. The XFEL and its unique characteristic will open new reasearch opportunities for scientists.

Page: European XFEL

The video is in german, I am sorry. The english version can be download here or directly watched on the XFEL homepage (right upper side)


(from European XFEL)


The construction time has already started in 2009 and will lead until 2014. Users can operate the facility and beamline in 2015. The project costs are around 1082 million euros (price level 2005) whereas Germany covers 54% and Russia 23%. The rest is split among the other members. Currently 13 countries are participating, all from europe except China. The facility has a total length of 3.4km (including accelerator), starting from DESY in Hamburg.

Characteristics of the European X-Ray Laser:

• wavelength: 0.1 - 6nm
• repetition rate: 27kHz!
• pulse duration: < 100fs
  
• average [peak] brilliance: 1.6*10^25 [5*10^33]
• coherence: yes

The average brilliance is around 10 000 better as the best conventional X-Ray sources, the peak brilliance even a billion times. As the X-Ray flashes are coherent, they can even make 3D images at the atomic level! A short but good description how the X-Ray flashes are generated you can find here.

The XFEL allows researcher to enter new areas which were inaccessible so far. Tiny structures, ultrafast processes and extreme states of matter will be explored. Let me quote from their homepage:
"Using the X-ray flashes of the European XFEL, scientists will be able to map the atomic details of viruses, decipher the molecular composition of cells, take three-dimensional images of the nanoworld, film chemical reactions and study the processes in the interior of planets."
The XFEL opens a lot of new research possibilites, have a look at their research page.

Take time and enjoy the XFEL homepage. It is seriously done and contains a lot of interesting information. Have fun.

additional information: wikipedia -XFEL