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40 Years of Research with Synchrotron Radiation at DESY

May 19, 2004

On Wednesday, May 19, starting at 1.30 p.m., the DESY research center will celebrate the anniversary of a very special kind of light: For 40 years, scientists have been conducting research with so-called synchrotron radiation at DESY - i.e. light with exceptional properties generated at accelerators. "The first measurements with the light beam from the ring accelerator DESY started in 1964. The laboratory was one of the nuclei in which the worldwide success story of research with synchrotron radiation began," Professor Albrecht Wagner, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors recalls. "Today, around 1900 scientists from 31 countries are using our accelerator facilities as powerful light sources. This puts us in a very good position in the international synchrotron radiation scene." And the next 40 years look just as promising for DESY. "Three new light sources will secure us a leading position in the field of research with photons," says Professor Jochen R. Schneider, Research Director at DESY. "These are the worldwide unique free-electron laser VUV-FEL for vacuum-ultraviolet and soft X-ray radiation, the European X-ray laser XFEL for light with even shorter wavelengths, and the PETRA accelerator which is being converted into PETRA III, the most brilliant storage-ring-based X-ray radiation source in the world."

The look ahead is thus also part of the anniversary program: Four of the lectures will present the light sources of the future. On that same day, DESY and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) will sign an agreement providing for a close, interdisciplinary partnership between the two research organizations. "We are formalizing the now 30-year-long tradition of successful cooperation between EMBL and DESY, in order to set the course for future top-quality research in the area of the life sciences," says DESY Director Albrecht Wagner. "EMBL has recognized that the future of biology is in interdisciplinary research opportunities - giving our scientists the chance to work with researchers from other disciplines," notes Dr. Matthias Wilmanns, Head of the EMBL outstation at DESY in Hamburg. "The physics expertise at DESY is a perfect complement for our research activities at EMBL."

Forty years ago, synchrotron radiation at DESY started from scratch: At the beginning of the 1960s, the intense light generated when accelerated electrons fly around a curved path was regarded by the DESY physicists as an unwanted, disruptive effect. Early on however, the then Research Director Professor Peter St'¤helin recognized the experimental opportunities offered by synchrotron radiation. In 1962, he instructed the up-and-coming young physicist Ruprecht Haensel to fathom out the perspectives of the new light source in his PhD thesis. In the anniversary year 2004, St'¤helin celebrated his 80th birthday. After much pioneering work, measurements with synchrotron radiation finally began at the ring accelerator DESY in 1964. And the success story went on: The larger storage ring DORIS took up operations in 1974, providing experimental opportunities for both particle physicists and the users of synchrotron radiation. Since 1993, DORIS has been used exclusively as a radiation source. A further milestone was marked in 1980 by the establishment of the Hamburg Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory HASYLAB, which maintains a large experimental hall with nearly 40 measuring stations at the DORIS accelerator. In addition, three test measuring stations for hard X-ray radiation are available for the HASYLAB users at the ring accelerator PETRA, which will be converted into the X-ray radiation source PETRA III from 2007 on and will then deliver radiation of especially high brilliance.

Moreover, starting in 2005 scientists will be able to carry out experiments at the free-electron laser VUV-FEL, which will generate radiation in the VUV and the soft X-ray range. At the same time, this FEL will serve as a pilot plant for the European X-ray free-electron laser XFEL, which will produce even shorter wavelengths in the X-ray range. The XFEL is to start operations from 2012 on. Its high-intensity, ultra-short flashes of laser light offer completely new research perspectives for the natural sciences and industrial users. Thus it will for instance be possible to make "movies" with atomic resolution of the behavior of materials or of a virus particle in a body cell.

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)