SASE3 will serve two experiment stations scheduled to begin user operation at the end of the year. The research at these two stations has relevance for basic research but also for the development of new materials in the fields of IT, medicine, energy research, and catalysts, among others. Since the start of operation in September 2017, 340 scientists from across the globe have already used the facility for their research. The successful start of operation of the new SASE 3 source will enable the facility to increase the number of users further.
European XFEL Managing Director Prof. Robert Feidenhans’l said: “We continue to be on schedule to start operation at all four experiment stations currently under construction, beginning with the first two instruments in November. The remaining two will start operation at the beginning of 2019. This will increase our current capacity threefold by mid 2019.”
SASE3 is one of currently three magnetic structures, so-called undulator Systems, at European XFEL. SASE1 produced the first-ever X-ray light at European XFEL in May 2017. Now SASE3 follows on schedule. The first lasing from SASE2 is planned for the middle of 2018.
About European XFEL
The European XFEL in the Hamburg area is a new international research facility: 27,000 X-ray flashes per second and a brilliance that is a billion times higher than that of the best conventional X-ray sources open up completely new opportunities for science. Research groups from around the world will be able to map the atomic details of viruses, decipher the molecular composition of cells, take three-dimensional “photos” of the nanoworld, “film” chemical reactions, and study processes such as those occurring deep inside planets.
At present, 11 countries have signed the European XFEL convention: Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The United Kingdom is in the process of joining.
