Pretty cool...
source: XFEL: Brilliant X-ray laser comes online - BBC News
One of the most powerful X-ray machines ever built has officially opened in the German city of Hamburg.
The facility, which has cost more than a billion euros to build, will be used to study the detailed structure of matter, atom by atom.
It is called the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL).
Scientists say the way it shines light on targets will permit, for example, chemical bonds to be filmed in the instant that they are made or broken.
Hamburg
XFEL
The electrons are produced under Hamburg and are injected into the machine to produce an X-ray beam that is received at Schenefeld
The researchers anticipate fundamental discoveries that lead to new medical treatments and novel materials, to name just two possibilities.
The XFEL will begin operations with 11 nations as members of its consortium.
Britain, which has supplied equipment to the facility, is expected to sign commitment papers to join the group before the end of the year.
Prof Robert Feidenhans'l is the MD of the non-profit company established to run the facility.
"It's a fantastic and exciting day for us to open the European XFEL for operation after more than eight years of construction," he told Friday's inauguration ceremony.
"I now declare we are ready to take data; we are ready to meet the challenge of getting groundbreaking results."
The machine is a superconducting linear accelerator that is housed in a 3.4km-long tunnel complex some 40m beneath Hamburg and the nearby town of Schenefeld.
The facility, which has cost more than a billion euros to build, will be used to study the detailed structure of matter, atom by atom.
It is called the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL).
Scientists say the way it shines light on targets will permit, for example, chemical bonds to be filmed in the instant that they are made or broken.
Hamburg
XFEL
The electrons are produced under Hamburg and are injected into the machine to produce an X-ray beam that is received at Schenefeld
The researchers anticipate fundamental discoveries that lead to new medical treatments and novel materials, to name just two possibilities.
The XFEL will begin operations with 11 nations as members of its consortium.
Britain, which has supplied equipment to the facility, is expected to sign commitment papers to join the group before the end of the year.
Prof Robert Feidenhans'l is the MD of the non-profit company established to run the facility.
"It's a fantastic and exciting day for us to open the European XFEL for operation after more than eight years of construction," he told Friday's inauguration ceremony.
"I now declare we are ready to take data; we are ready to meet the challenge of getting groundbreaking results."
The machine is a superconducting linear accelerator that is housed in a 3.4km-long tunnel complex some 40m beneath Hamburg and the nearby town of Schenefeld.
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