All accelerators function according to the same principle: Powerful electromagnetic waves accelerate the particles and massive magnets keep them on course. However, the accelerators’ specific technology varies according to the field of application. For the purposes of particle physics, accelerators must endow the particles with as much energy as feasible. Only then is it possible to generate and analyse the fundamental components of matter. An accelerator that functions as a light source, on the other hand, must induce the particles to emit extremely brief and intense flashes of X-rays.

World-class accelerator centre

With over 60 years of experience in both areas, DESY is among the world’s leading accelerator centres. The facilities that DESY develops and builds are unique research tools. They generate the world’s most intense X-rays, accelerate particles to highest energies and open new windows onto the universe. To design, build and successfully run such sophisticated pieces of high-tech equipment over many decades, at the limits of what is technically feasible, requires the combined forces of numerous experts from a whole range of specialist fields. All in all, over 700 people at DESY work on accelerator development, construction and operation, in close cooperation with universities, research institutions and industrial companies from Germany and throughout the world.

Pioneering superconducting accelerator technology

The DESY experts can only expand their top position in the world ranking of accelerator centres by time and again breaking new technological ground. With the superconducting TESLA technology, DESY and its international partners have developed a pioneering accelerator concept that now forms the basis for two major facilities in the Hamburg region: the free-electron laser FLASH at DESY and the European XFEL X-ray laser, currently the most brilliant X-ray source in the world. Thanks to the superconducting technology, the repetition rate of the X-ray flashes and thus the average brilliance of the European XFEL are orders of magnitude higher than in other, normal-conducting facilities of this kind.

Pushing back the frontiers of today’s technology

To stay at the forefront of global research in photon science, DESY plans to expand its current X-ray source PETRA III into the 3D X-ray microscope PETRA IV, the world’s brightest fourth-generation synchrotron radiation source, which will open up new vistas into the nanoworld. This will be achieved by upgrading the facility to a so-called diffraction-limited storage ring – the ultimate physical limit for this kind of light source. The free-electron laser FLASH is also being further optimised in the FLASH2020+ project. Together with European XFEL, DESY is working on the future development of the X-ray laser and its accelerator, among other things to increase the number of X-ray flashes from 27 000 to up to one million per second.

Devising the accelerators of the future

DESY is one of the forerunners of plasma wakefield acceleration – a revolutionary accelerator concept that enables up to a thousand times higher accelerating fields than conventional technology. It thus promises a new generation of powerful particle accelerators that could be built much more compactly than today’s facilities and could complement them in research, medicine and industry. In plasma accelerators, a laser or particle beam is used to generate a charged wave in a plasma that accelerates the subsequent particles. With the facilities LUX and KALDERA for laser-driven plasma acceleration and FLASHForward for the electron-beam-driven variant, DESY is pioneering developments in both directions, with the aim to realise mature plasma accelerators that can be deployed in its research areas in the future.

Complementing these core activities, DESY is pushing the frontiers of accelerator technology with various other facilities. The ARES linear accelerator enables accelerator research with ultrashort electron bunches for medical purposes and the development of autonomous accelerator methods. The AXSIS facility is used to explore terahertz-driven acceleration and its applications. At REGAE, the generation of ultrashort electron bunches is being advanced to perform time-resolved diffraction experiments on various materials. In Zeuthen, DESY operates the PITZ linear accelerator dedicated to the development of electron sources for the X-ray lasers of the future.