1978 Record-setting accelerator PETRA

In 1978, physicists accomplished an impressive record. With the Positron-Elektron-Tandem-Ring-Anlage (PETRA), they commissioned what was then at 2.3 kilometre circumference the world's largest storage ring.

PETRA was then used as a collider for particle physics, and, starting in 1986, as a preaccelerator for the even bigger HERA ring.

When PETRA was rebuilt as a second generation machine – PETRA II – experts in science and technology planned beamlines for experiments with hard X-rays. In 1995, the undulator test beam for synchrotron radiation at PETRA II was commissioned.

After that, DESY built the brightest storage ring of its kind in the world. Since 2009, PETRA III offers excellent conditions for experiments with extremely intense and highly bundled X-rays.