Modernisation of BESSY II+ light source
Antje Vollmer is spokeswoman for BESSY II and project lead of the BESSY II+ project. She says: "BESSY II is rising to the scientific and societal challenges. The positive feedback from users encourages us in this!" © HZB/M. Setzpfandt
The 16th edition of the BESSY@HZB user meeting will take place on 11-12 December 2024 in Berlin-Adlershof. 400 participants exchange information about research at BESSY II. This year, Romania is the country of honour. © HZB/M. Setzpfandt
The focus of the User Meeting 2024: Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) presents the BESSY II+ upgrade programme. It enables world-class research at BESSY II to be further expanded and new concepts to be tested with regard to the successor source BESSY III.
Every year in December, HZB invites the users of BESSY II light source to Adlershof for an exchange of expertise. Research highlights of the year are presented and the wishes of the user community regarding future developments are discussed.
"BESSY II is now in its 27th year of operation," says Antje Vollmer, BESSY II spokesperson. "The expectations of our users have changed over the years. They want additional infrastructures, laboratories close to the beamlines and have high expectations of the sample environment. Research interests have also changed. For example, we are seeing a strong interest in battery research and energy conversion processes."
This is where the BESSY II+ project comes in. The aim is for BESSY to become an "operando synchrotron for the energy transition".
A bridge to the future: the BESSY II+ project
BESSY II+ offers new experimental possibilities, especially for operando investigations. These make it possible, for example, to watch batteries or solar cells "at work". In addition to the new "operando" possibilities, the BESSY II+ project also focuses on the two topics of "modernisation" and "sustainability". Sustainability involves, among other things, the utilisation of waste heat from the BESSY II experimental hall. Machine learning and artificial intelligence will also be even more integrated into many processes.
Funding of BESSY II+
As part of the modernisation project, the HZB has received additional funding from the Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). "Invest BESSY II+" covers the most important investments for the project, which the BMBF is supporting to the tune of 17.45 million euros. This funding secures the development of new infrastructures, such as the SoTeXS instrument, which stands for soft-to-tender X-ray spectroscopy. This is a comprehensive concept for operando, metrological, multi-modal experiments that will be of great benefit to research into batteries and materials for energy applications.
Antje Vollmer emphasises: "BESSY II is facing up to the scientific and social challenges. The positive feedback from users encourages us to do so!"
- Surprising insights into the chemistry of hydroxyl radicals at BESSY IIHow do radicals form in aqueous solutions when exposed to UV light? This question is important for health research and environmental protection, for example with regard to the overfertilisation of water bodies by intensive agriculture. A team at BESSY II has now developed a new method of investigating hydroxyl radicals in solution. By using a clever trick, the scientists gained surprising insights into the reaction pathway.
- A duo for BESSY III light sourceSince 1 March 2026, Renske van der Veen and Andreas Jankowiak have formed the leadership team of BESSY III. Together, they will drive forward HZB’s central project: the planning and realisation of BESSY III light source in Berlin-Adlershof. Here, they talk about their motivation, the next steps, and why BESSY III is a a cross-generational project.
- Protein crystallography at BESSY II: faster, better and more and more automaticMany diseases are linked to malfunctions of proteins in the organism. The three-dimensional architecture of these molecules is often highly complex, but it can provide valuable insights into biological processes and the development of drugs. X-ray diffraction at the MX beamlines of BESSY II can be used to decipher the 3D structure of proteins. To date, more than 5000 structures have been solved at the three MX beamlines. Here, we present a review and an outlook with Manfred Weiss, head of the research group for macromolecular crystallography.