Organisational matters

With the successful start of operation of the new instruments, European XFEL has now doubled its capacity to conduct research. With the first three groups coming to the new instruments in 2018, the total number of users who will have visited the facility in 2018 will reach over 500.

The two already operational instruments, SPB/SFX and FXE, have been used to examine biomolecules or biological processes and ultrafast reactions respectively since September 2017. In the future, two of the four now operational instruments will be run in parallel in twelve hour shifts. Two more instruments are scheduled to start user operation in the first half of 2019.

“This important milestone gives even more researchers a chance to use the unique properties of our X-ray laser” says Prof. Serguei Molodtsov, Scientific Director at European XFEL. “We made a commitment to the scientific community that the two instruments SCS and SQS would be ready for operation by the end of the year. I am very pleased that we achieved this ambitious goal within time and budget. This has been made possible by the tremendous dedication of our staff and our colleagues from DESY, who operate the European XFEL’s accelerator. We now look forward to seeing the results that scientists from all over the world will achieve with the new instruments!”

Both new instruments use so-called soft X-rays, which have a longer wavelength than hard X-rays.

The SQS instrument is designed to study fundamental processes such as what happens when atoms or small molecules absorb many photons simultaneously as well as examining how and when molecular bonds break. SQS can also be used to investigate nanoparticles and biomolecules. The first experiment at SQS involved scientists from several institutes, who were interested in multi-photon processes triggered by the intense X-ray flashes of the European XFEL.

The SCS instrument is designed to help scientists unravel the electronic and structural properties of a range of materials, including understanding what kind of nanoscale changes happen in magnetic and superconducting materials, and observing what happens during chemical reactions in real-time. The first experiment at the instrument also included scientists from many different institutes and was designed to explore how solid state samples respond to intense X-ray pulses and react under the high pulse rate of the X-ray beam.

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About European XFEL

The European XFEL in the Hamburg area is a new international research facility of superlatives: 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 are 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. The operation of the facility is entrusted to European XFEL, a non-profit company that cooperates closely with its main shareholder, the research centre DESY, and other organisations worldwide. European XFEL has a workforce of more than 350 employees and started user operation September 2017. With construction and commissioning costs of 1.25 billion euro (at 2005 price levels) and a total length of 3.4 kilometres, the European XFEL is one of the largest and most ambitious European new research facilities to date. At present, 12 countries have signed the European XFEL convention: Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Press Contact:
Bernd Ebeling
Telephone: +49 040 8998-6921
Email: bernd.ebeling@xfel.eu

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Weitere Informationen:
https://media.xfel.eu/XFELmediabank/?l=en&c=18046 Pictures of the SCS and SQS instruments
http://www.xfel.eu more information on European XFEL