Breakthrough at the Fritz Haber Institute: First Operation of a Two-Color Mode in an Infrared Free-Electron Laser

New opportunities for experimental studies in diverse fields ranging from physical chemistry, materials science, catalysis research to biomolecular studies

23-Feb-2024 - A technological milestone has been achieved at the Fritz Haber Institute (FHI) of the Max Planck Society in Berlin. For the first time, an infrared Free-Electron Laser (FEL) has been operated in a two-color mode. This globally unique technology enables experiments with synchronized two-color ...

New technique paves way for imaging individual molecules

Pioneering experiment exploits quantum properties of X-ray light

04-May-2023 - An international research team has succeeded for the first time in using X-rays for an imaging technique that exploits a particular quantum property of light. As the researchers describe in their work just published in the journal Physical Review Letters, this technique could enable imaging of ...

Milestone for laser technology: Huge research machine much smaller and cost-effective

Research team demonstrates free-electron laser driven by plasma accelerated electron beams and seeded by additional light pulses

07-Dec-2022 - Extremely intense light pulses generated by free-electron lasers (FELs) are versatile tools in research. Particularly in the X-ray range, they can be deployed to analyze the details of atomic structures of a wide variety of materials. Until now, FELs such as the European XFEL in Germany are based ...

Surface imaging technique illuminates potential improvements in plastics production

DESY's free-electron laser FLASH shows chemical changes in surfaces

24-Aug-2022 - Consider the humble plastic food wrapper. It may seem like a simple clear film that wraps a loaf of bread or fruit gummies, but these films are less simply composed as it seems.Each individual layer must be chemically treated so that it adheres well to the next. In their efforts to adapt an ...

Crystallography for the misfit crystals

Advanced algorithms plus an exceptional X-ray laser can reveal the structures of not-so-neat-and-tidy materials unattainable by other techniques

24-Jan-2022 - Francis Crick, who famously co-discovered the shape of DNA, once said: “If you want to understand function, study structure.” Many decades later, this remains a tenet of biology, chemistry, and materials science. A key breakthrough in the quest for DNA’s structure came from X-ray crystallography, ...

Clocking electron movements inside an atom

Scientists dramatically enhance the achievable resolution at free-electron lasers with a new technique

20-Jan-2021 - Hard X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) have delivered intense, ultrashort X-ray pulses for over a decade. One of the most promising applications of XFELs is in biology, where researchers can capture images down to the atomic scale even before the radiation damage destroys the sample. In physics ...

FLASH reveals ultrafast dynamics of photocatalysis

Free electron laser study sheds light on the mechanism and timescale of the photocatalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide on titanium oxide

30-Nov-2020 - An international team of scientists have studied, for the first time, the light induced oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) to carbon dioxide (CO2) on the surface of an oxide photocatalyst in real-time using the soft X-ray free-electron laser FLASH combined with theoretical calculations. According ...

Prestigious grant for imaging single molecules

Human Frontier Science Program supports intercontinental collaboration

27-Apr-2017 - An international team of researchers, including DESY scientist Henry Chapman, has been awarded a research grant by the Human Frontier Science Program to develop a novel method for imaging individual biomolecules with atomic resolution. The team will receive a total of 1.35 million US-Dollars over ...

China develops world's brightest VUV free electron laser research facility

16-Jan-2017 - A team of Chinese scientists announced on Jan. 13 that they have developed a new bright VUV FEL light source, the Dalian Coherent Light Source (DCLS), which can deliver world's brightest FEL light in an energy range from 8 to 24 eV, making it unique of the same kind that only operates in the VUV ...

Characterization of X-ray flashes open new perspectives in X-ray science

Ultra-short X-ray pulses explore the nano world

01-Dec-2014 - Ultra-short and extremely strong X-ray flashes, as produced by free-electron lasers, are opening the door to a hitherto unknown world. Scientists are using these flashes to take “snapshots” of the geometry of tiniest structures, for example the arrangement of atoms in molecules. To improve not ...