European XFEL
European X-ray Free Electron Laser Faclility
The European XFEL is a 3.4 km long X-ray free-electron laser facility that is currently under construction, extending from the German city of Hamburg to the neighbouring town of Schenefeld in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. It will generate the world's brightest ultrashort X-ray pulses that will enable scientists to map the atomic details of viruses, decipher the molecular composition of cells, take three-dimensional images of the nanoworld, film chemical reactions, and study processes such as those occurring deep inside planets. With its repetition rate of 27 000 pulses per second and a peak brilliance a billion times higher than that of the best synchrotron X-ray radiation sources, the European XFEL is opening up new research opportunities for scientists and industrial users.
The facility is being realized as a joint effort of many partners. To this end, the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility GmbH, a limited liability company under German law that was officially founded in Hamburg on 28 September 2009, cooperates closely with the research centre DESY and other organizations worldwide. Civil construction started in early 2009 and user operation started in 2017. Presently, 12 countries are participating in the European XFEL project: Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
Beamlines: 3, upgradeable to 5
Scientific instruments: 6, upgradeable to 10