FLASH2020+ technical design phase started

Making FLASH brighter, faster and more flexible

Screenshot FLASH2020+ Meeting

Impression from the virtual Kick-off meeting of the FLASH2020+ project at DESY on 3 July 2020, including images of the speakers (Credit: DESY).

The technical design phase of the FLASH2020+ project at DESY started with an internal virtual kick-off meeting. Over 270 participants mainly from DESY and the campus in Hamburg joined the project team online on 3 July 2020. Key topics were the upgrade project of the free-electron laser (FEL), scientific goals, the embedding at DESY and the international landscape, the project structure and its timeline over the next five years.

The FLASH2020+ project is based on the long history of FLASH at DESY, from its inception as a test facility for the TESLA project in the mid-90s of the last century to the worldwide first XUV to soft X-ray FEL user facility ten years later. With the FLASH2 project, it is now the first FEL that runs two independent undulator lines in parallel, again about ten years later.

In 2020, yet another ten years later, the project is right in time to make the next step forward with the facility where especially the external seeding and shorter pulses will enable new and unique scientific opportunities. The upgrade will keep FLASH at the forefront of science with FELs for the next decade, as highlighted by Edgar Weckert, director in charge for DESY Photon Science. The importance of the project for the DESY strategy to further advance DESY’s machines and to develop new technologies for future accelerators was stressed by Wim Leemans, the DESY director of the accelerator division. With such a project, DESY contributes also to the technical developments in FEL science and teaching of the next generation of scientists.

The FLASH2020+ project will be led by Enrico Allaria, who presented the project phases, timeline and structure. He is an expert from the FEL “FERMI” in Trieste (Italy) and has just started to work at DESY.

Further information (slides) from the FLASH2020+ kick-off meeting