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Centre for Free-Electron Laser Science

DESY, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, and the University of Hamburg will establish together a Centre for Free-Electron Laser Science on the Hamburg University site next to the DESY campus. CFEL will focus on developing and exploiting the scientific applications of the new radiation sources with outstanding properties. It is the task of the new institution to bring together all disciplines necessary to perform an adaquate research effort on the global scale.

CFEL shall become a major interdisciplinary research centre opening the possibilities of the FEL technologies for a wide range of scientific challenges. It shall perform basic research and explore the possibilities to perform routine applications for scientific investigations and technological application. The institution will further contribute to the necessary training and education to ensure the dissemination of the knowledge generated into the academic and technological communities.

The CFEL will consist of five core groups. DESY is represented by the experimental research division for Coherent Imaging of Henry Chapman, the experimental research division for Ultrafast X-rays of Franz X. Kärtner and the Theory Division of Robin Santra.
An independent research group Controlled Molecule Imaging within the division for Coherent Imaging is headed by Jochen Küpper.

In addition the CFEL accommodates an Advanced Study Group (ASG) from the Max Planck Society, and another ASG from the University of Hamburg. In addition, DESY supports a detector group.

In 2007, the City of Hamburg approved 50 million Euros for the CFEL building with its offices and labs for about 300 people. It will be located between the new PETRA III hall and the Luruper Hauptstrasse on the Hamburg University site, and is due to be completed in 2011. Until then, the converted and extended building 49 on the DESY campus accommodates the first two core groups of CFEL.

Ground breaking for the CFEL building took place in 2009, at a site just north of the new PETRA III experimental hall. When completed, the building (~8.600 m²) will add to the vibrant new photon science research campus that is currently taking shape on the DESY campus (e.g. a centre for optical quantum technologies 'Zentrum für Optische Quantentechnologien' (ZOQ) is currently being built by the University of Hamburg close to the laser institute). Funded by the State of Hamburg and the Federal Government, and designed by the architectural firm of Hammeskrause, this modern building has been defined according to the requirements and wishes of the groups within the CFEL.

Beyond purely practical needs, however, it will breathe the spirit of a new enterprise, collaborative between the different institutions involved, across the classical scientific disciplines, synergetic towards new science, a place of creative and, simultaneously, of hard and concentrated work. Thus, the office layouts encourage communication and discussion, and the distribution of laboratories emphasizes current and future collaborations, for example in the development of detectors, biology and biochemistry, and use of laser facilities.

Further Information

www.cfel.de