BESSY II resumes operation after a long shutdown
The extensive work during the shutdown was completed on time. A great occasion to celebrate and say thank you to all those involved.
© HZB/V. Mai
On 30 August, BESSY II ligth source will resume user operation: the research centre will then welcome guest researchers from all over the world and support them in their various experiments. The 14-week shutdown was the longest in BESSY II history. Among other works, the main supply was completely renewed. The successful completion of the work was celebrated with all those involved.
"14 weeks of shutdown - we've never actually had such a long interruption at BESSY II," says Ingo Müller, who coordinated the work during the shutdown with Christian Jung. But there was a lot to do during this time. To ensure a reliable power supply for the storage ring in the future, it was necessary to replace the low-voltage main supply. In addition, new chillers were also installed during the shutdown. They ensure that the air conditioning in the electron storage ring runs reliably.
Read more about the work during the shutdown here.
"Our machine has been running again for almost two weeks now. We are in the middle of commissioning and are doing everything we can to ensure that users will receive the BESSY light beam in the usual quality for their experiments from 30 August onwards," reports Ingo Müller.
The punctual and successful completion of the work was also a reason to celebrate. All the staff involved at HZB and the external companies met on 23 August at BESSY II's forecourt for currywurst & chips - a typical Berlin delicacy!
By the way, BESSY II was a visitor magnet during the shutdown. We were delighted to welcome high-ranking delegations. For example from Singapore, Brasil and Sweden and many visitors at the Long Night of the Sciences.
- A simpler way to inorganic perovskite solar cellsInorganic perovskite solar cells made of CsPbI3 are stable over the long term and achieve good efficiencies. A team led by Prof. Antonio Abate has now analysed surfaces and interfaces of CsPbI3 films, produced under different conditions, at BESSY II. The results show that annealing in ambient air does not have an adverse effect on the optoelectronic properties of the semiconductor film, but actually results in fewer defects. This could further simplify the mass production of inorganic perovskite solar cells.
- Spintronics: A new path to room temperature swirling spin texturesA team at HZB has investigated a new, simple method at BESSY II that can be used to create stable radial magnetic vortices in magnetic thin films.
- BESSY II: How pulsed charging enhances the service time of batteriesAn improved charging protocol might help lithium-ion batteries to last much longer. Charging with a high-frequency pulsed current reduces ageing effects, an international team demonstrated. The study was led by Philipp Adelhelm (HZB and Humboldt University) in collaboration with teams from the Technical University of Berlin and Aalborg University in Denmark. Experiments at the X-ray source BESSY II were particularly revealing.