China joins XFEL
DOI: 10.1063/1.4797275
On 24 November 2005, China became the first non-European country to join the x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) to be built at the German Electron Synchrotron lab (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany. By mid-2006, the 13—and still counting—partners aim to set forth details on the mode of collaboration, technical design, schedule, cost breakdown, and financing for the project. Germany will pay roughly 60% of the projected C908 million ($1.1 million) construction cost.
The XFEL will produce x rays in the wavelength range 0.085–6.0 nm with pulse times less than 100 femtoseconds (see Physics Today, May 2005, page 26 ). The x-ray pulses will be used to observe molecular and atomic processes in materials and bio-molecules in real time. Construction begins late this year and the facility is supposed to go on line in 2012.
More about the authors
Toni Feder, American Center for Physics, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, Maryland 20740-3842, US . tfeder@aip.org
