Cutting-edge research in Berlin: BESSY II light source to be equipped with new features and capabilities

The upgrade will usher in some important innovations. BESSY-VSR will offer short light pulses with durations of two picoseconds as well as longer pulses with durations of 15 picoseconds, while the high level of photon flux remains constant &ndash; even during the shorter pulses.</p>
<p>Foto &copy;: euroluftbild.de / Robert Grahn

The upgrade will usher in some important innovations. BESSY-VSR will offer short light pulses with durations of two picoseconds as well as longer pulses with durations of 15 picoseconds, while the high level of photon flux remains constant – even during the shorter pulses.

Foto ©: euroluftbild.de / Robert Grahn

With the transformation of the BESSY II light source into a variable-pulse-length storage ring, Berlin will become even more attractive as a location for science to researchers from the world over

The Senate of the Helmholtz Association resolved on June 1st, 2017 to support the transformation of BESSY II into a variable-pulse-length storage ring (BESSY-VSR). The Helmholtz Association will provide funding of 11.9 million euros for the upgrade project, with 10.1 million euros provided by internal resources of its operator, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB). Following the upgrade, BESSY-VSR will be the first synchrotron light source in the world to deliver brilliant X-ray pulses with user-selectable durations: short and long light pulses will be simultaneously produced in the same ring. This will open up new opportunities for researchers, including new studies on energy materials that contribute to sustainable energy supplies and storage.

BESSY II is a light source providing VUV and soft X-rays operated by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. As a third-generation synchrotron light source, it has been providing an outstanding and reliable research environment since 1998 not only for researchers at HZB who primarily use the light for research on energy materials, but also for the approximately 2000 guest researchers who travel each year to Berlin from the world over in order to study their samples at BESSY II.

During its current regular operations, BESSY II provides brilliant X-ray pulses having a duration of 17 picoseconds (1 picosecond = 10-12 s). It is already feasible for a few days each year to change the operating mode over so that samples can also be studied using shorter pulses of about three picoseconds. Short pulses are necessary in order to image fast atomic processes over time, for example. Up to now, though, this allocation sharply reduced the intensity of the photon flux to only a fraction of its regular level.

BESSY-VSR will offer both short and longer light pulses

The upgrade will usher in some important innovations. BESSY-VSR will offer short light pulses with durations of two picoseconds as well as longer pulses with durations of 15 picoseconds, while the high level of photon flux remains constant – even during the shorter pulses. Users will be able to select the pulse length necessary for their experiment and even combine differing pulse lengths for experiments requiring this.

That will bring advancements in energy materials research at HZB. Scientists will be able to trace how the electronic structure of reactants changes during a chemical reaction, for example.

“I am very pleased that we were able to persuade the Senate of the Helmholtz Association of the project’s quality”, says Prof. Bernd Rech, acting Scientific Director of the HZB. “The upgrade ensures that we will continue to operate a synchrotron light source in Berlin that meets world-wide demand.”

Superconducting high-power cavity resonators are one of the things needed to realise BESSY-VSR. The State of Berlin has made available 7.4 million euros from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for the set up of the SupraLab@HZB application lab that will carry out the advanced development of these cavity resonators. Researchers together with collaborating industrial organisations will develop the technology to the point where it is ready for incorporation in BESSY-VSR and other synchrotron light sources.


You might also be interested in

  • Sebastian Keckert wins Young Scientist Award for Accelerator Physics
    News
    21.03.2024
    Sebastian Keckert wins Young Scientist Award for Accelerator Physics
    Dr Sebastian Keckert has been awarded the Young Scientist Award for Accelerator Physics of the German Physical Society (DPG). The prize is endowed with 5000 euros and was presented to him on 21.03. during the spring conference in Berlin. It honours the physicist's outstanding achievements in the development of new superconducting thin-film material systems for cavities.

  • The future of BESSY
    News
    07.03.2024
    The future of BESSY
    At the end of February 2024, a team at HZB published an article in Synchrotron Radiation News (SRN). They describe the next development goals for the light source as well as the BESSY II+ upgrade programme and the successor source BESSY III.

  • HZB receives funding to make innovations usable more quickly
    News
    23.03.2023
    HZB receives funding to make innovations usable more quickly
    The Helmholtz Association has selected three new innovation platforms that will now be funded. HZB is involved in two of them: The Innovation Platform on Accelerator Technologies HI-ACTS is intended to open up modern accelerators for a wide range of applications, while the Innovation Platform Solar TAP is intended to bring new ideas from the laboratories of photovoltaics research more quickly into an application. In total, HZB will receive 4.2 million euros in grants from the Pact for Research and Innovation over the next three years.