New Users at DESY Photon Science

QuickLinks
  • DOOR
    - User Registration - Proposal Submission - Administration of Experiment .....and more
PETRA III

Experimental hutch in the PETRA III hall "Max von Laue".

Beamline

Users during their beamtime at a PETRA III beamline.

FLASH

User experiment at FLASH.

Every year, more than 3000 scientists from all over the world and from virtually all disciplines of natural sciences make their way to Hamburg to work at DESY photon sources. They take advantage of the unique light source FLASH, the world’s first free-electron laser generating radiation in the vacuum ultraviolet and soft X-ray regions and the synchrotron source PETRA III delivering X-ray radiation of an especially high brilliance. More than 30 beamlines and 60 instruments and experimental setups are available for user experiments at PETRA III and FLASH at present. A few more beamlines will become available in next years. The use of the facility is free of charge for academic research which is being published according to established standards. Special conditions and application procedures are offered for industry.

Industry users
Users from industry should contact the Service Group Industry via mail first.
See also their webpage Innovation & Technologie Transfer


Academic users
If you are interested in performing experiments at DESY Photon Science facilities please first consult the webpages of PETRA III or FLASH
You may also contact the User Office or the staff of the respective beamline.

Briefly, for academic access, you have to take the following steps on the way to beamtime and a successful experiment:

Step 1
For each experiment, users (except from industry) have to write a research proposal, ideally after consultation with the respective beamline scientist/ beamtime coordinator. Following the call for proposals, the project proposal has to be submitted via the DESY Online Office for Research with Photons DOOR. If you are a first time user, you will need to register at DOOR.

Step 2
As a next step, the proposal will be checked for general feasibility by an internal review, followed by the assessment by one of the international Project Review Panels (PRPs). According to their recommendation and ranking, DESY Photon Science will decide on approval. Beamtime will be distributed considering the recommendations of the PRPs and the requirements of the different user groups. Due to the high demand, beamtime cannot be guaranteed for all highly-ranked projects.

Step 3
Especially users who prepare their first experiments at DESY photon sources should arrange their visit and prepare their experiments well in advance following the instructions given in the User Guide. In order to permit a smooth realisation of your experiment and prevent any unnecessary loss of beamtime all technical questions should be discussed with the assigned local contact before your arrival at DESY.

DESY offers limited support for travel expenses for users from German universities and users from EU member countries and associated states. Applications for financial support have to be submitted by the PI of the proposals in advance via DOOR, i.e., before your trip to Hamburg, but not prior to approval of your proposal and allocation of beamtime.

During and after the experiment
Details of what has to be done on-site during and after the experiment can be found in the User Guide.