2017 The X-ray laser European XFEL

In 2017, a superlative research facility went into operation in the Hamburg metropolitan area. The European XFEL generates ultrashort laser light flashes in the X-ray spectrum, 27,000 times per scond and a billion times more intense than the best common X-ray sources.

DESY developed the facility in the context of an international collaboration, with a particular focus on the superconducting particle accelerator, which DESY built and operates.

The facility is housed in underground tunnels, is more than three kilometres long, and reaches from the DESY campus in Hamburg to the city of Schenefeld in the neighbouring state of Schleswig-Holstein, where the research campus and a large experiment hall are located.