Virtual visits at HZB and 360° Panorama
We now also offer virtual tours. © HZB
Many HZB laboratories do offer a 360° panorama. © HZB
Due to Corona, it is currently not possible to welcome groups of visitors at HZB and guide them through the facility. Nevertheless, we open our doors virtually for you and provide insights into research facilities and labs at HZB. Make yourself comfortable and start your own virtual tour through BESSY II. Move through 360-degree images, have a look and linger at selected stations.
BESSY II: Follow the path of light
Have you always wanted to walk through an accelerator? Then let's get started! The two tours "The Path of Light" and "The Experiment" start in the control room of BESSY II. Continue to the place where electrons race through and emit light at almost the speed of light - the storage ring tunnel. Follow the light and see how we experiment with it.
Enjoy the digital tour!
Tours Wannsee site
At the HZB Wannsee site, for example, we are investigating novel catalyst materials needed for the generation of hydrogen with sunlight or the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels. We are working on better battery systems and analyzing materials with different X-ray methods. In cooperation with the Berlin Charité, we offer eye tumor therapy with protons, which takes place at a particle accelerator. Take a look around our laboratories and discover how we do research. A blue sign in the 360° panoramas points to video clips or graphics showing important processes.
Enjoy the digital tours!
More panoramas
Some of the HZB's research facilities can be visited as 360-degree panoramas. These panoramas do not contain any explanations and are mainly available to our researchers and cooperation partners for guided tours or lectures.
- BESSY II: High-resolution insights into individual biomolecules and catalystsVery small biological samples and even individual biomolecules can now be examined under near-physiological conditions with high confidence at the BESSY II infrared beamline with a newly validated and improved technique: The nanoscale infrared spectroscopy (s-SNOM) with ultra-thin silicon-based membranes. An international team demonstrated after an initial proof of concept, that high-resolution (a few tens of nanometres) nano-IR measurements reliably match expected far-field IR spectra in an aqueous environment. This methodological advance provides a solid foundation for studying biomaterials or observing catalytic processes in a liquid environment.
- New method shows how molecular switches are influenced by their neighborsResearchers at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Helmholtz Centre Berlin (HZB) have, for the first time, been able to directly observe how the environment surrounding a molecular switch influences its electronic structure. Molecular switches are molecules that can be switched between two states by external influences such as changes in temperature—similar to a switch with the positions »On« and »Off«. Such molecules are being investigated as potential building blocks for future data storage devices or sensor materials. Using magnetic-field-dependent terahertz spectroscopy, the researchers have now, for the first time, been able to distinguish whether neighbouring molecules in a material are in the same or different states. The results have been published in the journal »Angewandte Chemie International Edition«.
- BESSY II is back in operation after maintenance shutdownOn 7 September 2026, BESSY II was set into operation after a four-week shutdown. BESSY II is scheduled to resume full user operation on 22 September.