25.09.2013

Topping-out for FLASH experimental hall

The building shell of the FLASH II experimental hall is finished. On 25 September, DESY, building firms and architects celebrated the completion of the roof of the experimental hall with a traditional topping out ceremony. The hall construction started in January this year. It is part of the FLASH II project, in which the accelerator of the free-electron laser FLASH is equipped with a second lasing beamline to serve more users with the highly demanded X-ray light. The beamline branches off of the existing FLASH tunnel behind the FLASH accelerator.

Topping-out ceremony for the FLASH II experimental hall

On the inside of the PETRA III storage ring, the tunnel for the undulators and the technical buildings for the seeding laser, cooling water and magnet power supply are already complete and technically equipped. The 2200 square foot experimental hall on the outside of the ring should also be "waterproof" in January 2014 and will be then transferred to DESY, including the technical equipment. DESY will then start to equip it with the experimental beamlines. Up to seven experimental stations are planned in the hall on the long term. First experiments with the laser light from FLASH´s second light production line is scheduled for autumn 2014.