URL: http://www.desy.de/research/research_areas/accelerators/overview_accelerators/index_eng.html
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The particle accelerators at DESY are operated for decades. The longest-serving accelerator, for example, the “DESY” synchrotron, totalled 43 years of operation. Most of the machines are used in various incarnations for different research purposes. When one of them is no longer up to the demands of top-level research, it is by no means made redundant. Instead, it then becomes a pre-accelerator for a larger facility or provides test beams for the development of subsequent projects. This is why most of the accelerators DESY has constructed in over 50 years are still up and running today.
Overview of the DESY accelerators
The graphic shows the accelerator facilities at the DESY location in Hamburg. In addition, the Zeuthen location hosts a test stand with its own linear accelerator, the photoinjector test facility PITZ.
- Free-electron laser with superconducting linear accelerator
- Length: 260 m
- 1992-2005: test facility for accelerator and FEL technology
- Since 2005: soft X-ray laser for photon science
- Ring accelerator for electrons & positrons, later also for protons
- Length: 2304 m
- Commissioning: 1978
- 1978-1986: particle physics
- 1987-2007: pre-accelerator for HERA
- Since 2009: X-ray light source
- Ring accelerator for electrons & positrons
- Length: 289 m
- Commissioning: 1974
- 1974-1992: particle physics and photon science
- 1993-2012: synchrotron radiation source
- European project with strong DESY participation
- Free-electron laser with superconducting linear accelerator
- Length: approx. 3.4 km
- Under construction, commissioning starts in 2014
- X-ray laser for photon science
- Electron-proton storage ring for particle physics
- Length: 6336 m
- Research operation: 1992-2007
- Data evaluation: ongoing
- Experiments: H1, ZEUS, HERMES, HERA-B
Pre-accelerator DESY I/III
- Ring accelerator for electrons & positrons, later for protons
- Operation: 1964-2007
- 1964-1978: research operation
- From 1973: pre-accelerator
Pre-accelerator DESY II
- Ring accelerator for electrons & positrons
- Lenght: 293 m
- Commissioning: 1987
Pre-accelerator LINAC II
- Linear accelerator for electrons & positrons
- Length: 70 m
- Commissioning: 1971
Pre-accelerator LINAC III
- Linear accelerator for protons
- Length: 32 m
- Commissioning: 1988, decommissioning: 2007
Pre-accelerator PIA
- Accumulator for electrons & positrons
- Length: 29 m
- Commissioning: 1979
- Test facility with a linear accelerator at DESY in Zeuthen
- Used for the development and optimization of electron sources
- Length: approx. 12 m
- Commissioning: 2002
