Chancellor Schröder hands over new free-electron laser at DESY
With the symbolic push of a button, German Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder handed over the new free-electron laser (VUV-FEL) to scientists at the German research centre, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) on 3 August. Professor Albrecht Wagner, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors, expressed his satisfaction: 'This worldwide unique pioneering facility for free-electron lasers for the generation of X-ray radiation is thus now at the disposal of the scientific users.' The new free-electron laser VUV-FEL will deliver vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and 'soft ' x-rays of an intensity far in excess of anything currently available. Thanks to the VUV-FEL, physicists, chemists, materials scientists and molecular biologists will be able to examine their samples to a degree of detail not possible today. The free-electron laser VUV-FEL makes use of the new technology developed at DESY from 1992 to 2004 by the international team of the TESLA Collaboration. 'The VUV-FEL at DESY is the worldwide first free-electron laser for the short-wavelength range of ultraviolet radiation. It generates especially intense and extremely short flashes of laser light that open up completely new insights into the nanoworld,' explained DESY Research Director, Professor Jochen Schneider. 'Using the VUV-FEL, scientists can for instance 'film' chemical reactions. The unique radiation enables ground-breaking experiments in fields such as cluster physics, solid state physics, surface physics, plasma research and molecular biology.' At present, a total of 29 research projects are planned at the VUV-FEL. These will be carried out by around 200 scientists from 60 institutes in 11 countries, including researchers from national and international universities and research institutions, as well as the Max Planck institutes. Many further projects have already been proposed. The costs for the free-electron laser VUV-FEL amount to a total of 117 million euro, 90 per cent of which is financed with German public funds (from the Federal Republic of Germany with a ten per cent contribution from the City of Hamburg), and the rest by international partners.
Countries
Germany