PETRA III takes up research operation

DESY’s new X-ray source PETRA III has taken up operation for the international science community. At the 2.3-kilometres long synchrotron source of the third generation, the first external users were welcomed, thus starting the first official measuring period. more

Topping-out ceremony for CFEL

Vis-à-vis the PETRA III experimental hall, a very special new building celebrated its topping-out ceremony: the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) – a centre of excellence for photon science at next generation light sources that is unique in Europe. Even if the construction of the “real” roof structure was delayed by the hard winter, CFEL already boasts an excellently developed “scientific roof structure”, as Hamburg’s State Minister of Science and Research Dr. Herlind Gundelach underlined in her address. By winning the world’s best scientists for its working groups, CFEL already turned into a scientific success story, the State Minister said. more

Start of tunnel construction for the European XFEL

The traditional tunnel and borer christening celebration today marked the start of construction of the tunnel system for the X-ray laser European XFEL. More than 500 guests attended the ceremony on the building site in Schenefeld (Pinneberg district, Schleswig-Holstein), the future research campus of the X-ray laser facility. Tomorrow, the first of the two tunnel boring machines – TULA (“TUnnel for LAser”), 6.17 metres in diameter, 71 metres long, weighing 550 tonnes and costing 18 million Euros – will start in the direction of DESY-Bahrenfeld. more

Hamburg accelerates particle physics – Alexander von Humboldt professorship for university and DESY granted

The University of Hamburg and DESY have won a shared Alexander von Humboldt professorship for the development of accelerators and particle physics. The renowned award goes to Professor Brian Foster, currently head of Particle Physics at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research announced today. Assuming successful conclusions to negotiations, Foster will receive up to 5 million Euros over a period of five years to fund research into the development and realisation of acceleration technologies for particle physics and continued analysis of data from DESY’s flagship accelerator, HERA. more

Record wavelength at FLASH – First lasing below 4.5 nanometres

For the first time, FLASH produced laser light with a wavelength of 4.45 nanometres; thus, DESY’s free-electron laser for soft X-ray light considerably beat its previous record of 6.5 nanometres. At the same time, the peak intensity of single light pulses nearly doubled, with 0.3 millijoule. Prior to this, there was a five-month machine upgrade, above all with a significant improvement of the superconducting linear accelerator. more

Flat FLASH – The 3.9 GHz system acting on beam

One of the key components of the recent FLASH upgrade, the newly integrated 3.9 GHz rf system demonstrated for the first time its ability to flatten the energy distribution of the electrons in a bunch, the so called phase space linearization. This will improve significantly the performance of FLASH by optimizing the creation of ultra short bunches with high peak current and the creation of uniform intensity bunches of adjustable length. more

Strong partners for future research

At DESY, on the day of the research centre's official 50th-anniversay ceremony, the course was also set for the future: four high-ranking research organisations – DESY, Stanford University with the SLAC accelerator centre, the University of Hamburg and the Max Planck Society – signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the collaboration in two promising research areas: X-ray science and free-electron laser research. more

Group dynamics of atoms

An ensemble of identical atoms submitted to irradiation of light behaves differently than a single atom. Jointly, the atoms emit light at a lower frequency than a single atom would do. This effect, the so-called collective Lamb shift, was recently observed by a research team headed by
Ralf Röhlsberger from DESY. The scientists provided evidence of an effect that theorists predicted already more than 35 years ago, but could not be experimentally proved so far. The results of this experiment are published in the current issue of Science.
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Röntgen Medal for Helmut Dosch

The Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors, Professor Helmut Dosch, has been awarded the Röntgen Medal 2010 of the city of Remscheid. He receives the medal for his ground-breaking work in the field of surface-sensitive X-ray scattering. He made decisive contributions to the fact that today X-ray scattering is used as a method in surface science. more

Brandenburg Research Minister Martina Münch visits DESY

On Friday, 9 April, Dr. Martina Münch, Research Minister of Brandenburg, visited DESY in Zeuthen. In an extensive conversation with Professor Helmut Dosch, chairman of the DESY board of directors, and Dr. Ulrich Gensch, representing the DESY directorate in Zeuthen, she was introduced to the complete research programme of DESY and the role of DESY in Zeuthen more

LHC lets the particles collide!

The physics programme of the Large Hadron Collider LHC, the world’s largest particle accelerator at CERN in Geneva, has started. On 30 March at 13:06 h, accelerator physicists brought the opposing proton beams to collision, each at an energy of 3.5 Tera electron volts, thus producing particle collisions in the four LHC experiments at the highest energies ever taking place in an accelerator. more

All birds use the same navigation system

How do birds find their way when they fly? Scientists resolved this question a couple of years ago at DESY with the synchrotron radiation source DORIS III, when they discovered structures containing iron in the beaks of homing pigeons. These structures are able to measure the direction and intensity of the earth’s magnetic field and thus help the birds navigate. Recently a team of scientists from the universities of Frankfurt and Oldenburg, the Helmholtz Centre Berlin, and DESY gained surprising new insights with new experiments. more

Tate Medal for Gustav-Adolf Voss

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) awarded the Tate Medal for International Leadership in Physics to Prof. Gustav-Adolf Voss. He received the renowned medal on 14 February at a meeting of the American Physical Society in Washington in recognition of his outstanding success in promoting international physics for many years more

DESY turns 50! - Germany’s largest accelerator centre celebrates its anniversary today

Germany’s largest accelerator centre celebrates its birthday on 18 December: the research centre Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY turns 50. Since its foundation in 1959, DESY has developed into an internationally renowned centre for fundamental research. “DESY stands for top-level research in the development of particle accelerators and in the utilisation of these facilities to study the structure and function of matter,” says Professor Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors. more

German Research Computer QPACE is the most energy efficient in the world

The high-performance computer QPACE (QCD Parallel Computing on the Cell) is the most energy-efficient supercomputer in the world. It is the top entry on the Green500 list, which provides a global ranking of energy-efficient supercomputers. The QPACE core team consists of about 20 scientists and developers. Within the consortium, headed by the University of Regensburg, the research centres DESY and Jülich have central responsibilities. more

The Fermilab-DESY collaboration pays off: high grades for third-harmonic module

The 260-metre-long free-electron laser FLASH at DESY is currently undergoing a major upgrade. One of the crucial new components in the superconducting linear accelerator of FLASH is a superconducting module operating at 3.9 GHz, three times the normal accelerating frequency. This third-harmonic module, built by Fermilab, now has passed extensive tests. Once installed and in operation, it will form narrower electron bunches within the FLASH accelerator, leading to brighter FEL light. more

Precision for LHC from combined HERA data

The H1 and ZEUS collaborations have submitted three common publications opening a new era of precision in the analysis of electron-proton data collected at the high energy collider HERA at DESY. HERA was capable to collide both electrons and their anti-particles, positrons on protons, thereby providing a unique experimental configuration. more

Start for PETRA III – the world´s most modern synchrotron radiation source

In Hamburg, researchers from all over the world will be able to use a new research facility of superlatives: at DESY, the world’s most modern storage-ring-based synchrotron radiation source was inaugurated on Monday. With PETRA III, scientists expect to get fundamental new insights in the structure of matter. “This Hamburg-based facility offers unique perspectives,” said Federal Research Minister Annette Schavan at the inauguration. more

DESY Open Day 2009 – a great day for everyone

It was a festival. There was a hustle and bustle in the tents and the halls, a lot of people were fascinated by the lectures on research, and the shuttle buses travelling on the campus were totally overcrowded. About 800 helpers brought their DESY to the public at the Open Day 2009 and managed to convey the fascination of research to the 13300 visitors. The Open Day 2009 was a great day for everyone.
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