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Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron
A Research Centre of the Helmholtz Association

HIGHLIGHTS - DESY generates pulses of brilliant light

Protein structure

Particle accelerators generate a special kind of light that can illuminate tiny details of the microcosm. Here at DESY scientists from around the world use this light to investigate the atomic structure and reactions of promising new materials and biomolecules that might one day serve to make groundbreaking new drugs. DESY’s unique spectrum of light sources makes it one of the world’s leading centres for science with photons.

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DORIS III

DORIS III is the reliable "workhorse" among the DESY light sources. Since the 1990s, the 300-metre-long storage ring has been used exclusively for photon science. The penetrating light beam of DORIS III enables scientists to gaze deeply into the inner workings of matter, for instance to develop more effective catalysts or more precise methods for the detection of contaminants. The light from DORIS III even helped researchers to unveil the artistic secrets of a van Gogh painting.

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PETRA III

PETRA III is DESY's most brilliant ring: the 2300-metre-long ring accelerator is the world's best machine of its kind. Using its especially fine, intense and brilliant X-ray light – its beams are a thousand times finer than a human hair – researchers are able to gaze even deeper into the nanoworld. With unprecedented resolution, the light from PETRA III reveals the structure of nanotechnology materials and of proteins relevant for the fight against pathogens.

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FLASH

FLASH is the world’s only laser facility generating high-power ultra-short pulses of laser light in the soft X-ray range. As such, it provides researchers with unprecedented experimental possibilities. Scientists will be able to use this radiation much like an ultra-fast stroboscope to actually watch fast processes such as the formation of chemical bonds or those involved in magnetic data storage as they actually unfold. The use of X-ray radiation to investigate such processes ranks among the most important new applications of this type of X-ray laser.

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European XFEL

The European XFEL is a new research facility currently under construction – mostly underground – between DESY and the neighbouring Schleswig-Holstein town of Schenefeld. It is being realized as a European project involving many international partners, not least of them DESY. The facility will be around 3.4 kilometres long, 13 times longer than FLASH. Its brilliance will outshine that of all previous light sources and reveal undreamt-of details of the microcosm.

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