FLASH News Archive 2016

Precise test of quantum physical tunnel effect at DESY’s X-ray laser FLASH


Helium atoms are loners. Only when you cool them to very low temperatures do they form extremely weakly bonded molecules. Yet even in this state, they are able to maintain an extremely large separation from each other thanks to quantum tunnelling. With the help of DESY’s free-electron laser FLASH, Frankfurt nuclear physicists have been able to confirm that the atoms spend more than 75 percent of their time so far apart from each other ...

FLASH observes exploding xenon nanoparticles


A team of researchers led by Daniela Rupp from the Technical University of Berlin has been using DESY’s X-ray laser FLASH to study the ultrafast, light-induced explosion of nanoparticles made up of xenon. Studying these so-called xenon clusters provides new insights into the fundamental interaction between intense radiation and matter, as the scientists report in the journal Physical Review Letters.



“Clusters ...

FEL Science and Applications Award for Kartik Ayyer


The DESY physicist Kartik Ayyer from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science CFEL was awarded the “FEL Science and Applications award” of the international “Science@FELs 2016” conference in Trieste, Italy. The Indian researcher works as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the team of Henry Chapman.



The award is given to young researchers on the occasion of the conference and comprises of a ...

Helmholtz Prize for science at FLASH


For their high-precision measurements carried out at DESY’s free-electron laser FLASH, five research scientists from the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main are to receive the Helmholtz Prize in Metrology. The team surrounding Reinhard Dörner, professor for atomic physics, used a special apparatus to study extremely weakly bound helium molecules. In the process, the scientists also discovered a molecule made of three helium atoms, ...

First user operation at FLASH2


Since Friday, 8 April at 12:14 h FLASH is running in parallel operation for two user experiments, one in the experimental hall “Albert Einstein” (FLASH1) and one in the new hall “Kai Siegbahn” (FLASH2). First official FLASH2 users are the researchers around Sven Toleikis and Andreas Przystawik from DESY at beamline FL24 who focus the FLASH2 pulses with the help of a multilayer mirror onto rare gas clusters and study ...