On Thursday, local time, the world’s largest X-ray laser emits laser pulses for the first time in Hamburg, Germany-it can generate a pulsed laser with a wavelength of 0.8nm per second. The European X-ray free electron laser pointer with a length of 3.4 kilometers (2.1 miles) will be officially put into use in September. When operating normally, XFEL can emit up to 27,000 pulses per second-which is a considerable improvement over the previous maximum of 120 pulses per second.
Free electron lasers work on the principle of a synchrotron, which generates high-intensity electromagnetic radiation by accelerating electrons to a relative speed, and then guides them through special magnetic structures. Only in this case, XFEL is 1 billion times brighter than the traditional synchrotron light source, and images can be captured with atomic resolution.
The main component of the European X-ray free electron laser facility is a superconducting accelerator. After 2.1 kilometers of acceleration, the electron energy can be increased. The electron pulse here is accelerated to near the speed of light and very high energy before entering the photon tunnel containing the 210-meter X-ray generation device, which consists of 17,290 permanent magnets called “waveformers”.
The European X-ray free electron laser is the largest laser facility in the world that can generate high-intensity short-pulse X-rays. It can shoot the green laser pointer beam into several experimental stations in the underground experimental hall, and can conduct different experiments at the same time. This means that each researcher can process more projects faster.
The European X-ray free electron laser professor said: “This is an important moment for us and our partners after years of hard work. The knowledge and component facilities contributed by many countries in the world have passed the first large-scale test and colleagues who participated in the European project It has also made outstanding achievements with international partners and achieved great success in scientific cooperation in Europe and around the world. Now we can guide the X-ray to the laboratory through the last tunnel and then start the commissioning of the experimental station step by step. We Very much looking forward to the official start of operation in September.”