Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL), Hamburg

CFEL is a cooperation of DESY, the Max-Planck Society and the University of Hamburg, located on DESY campus, with close connections to the European XFEL. The main topic of CFEL is to advance science with next generation light sources, especially studying matter on atomic length and time scales. LUX, the CFEL Junior Research Group for Laser-Plasma Driven Light Sources, was established in 2013 to build, operate and study new sources of femtosecond x-ray pulses.

A new 200 TW laser system was recently installed within a cooperation of DESY and the University of Hamburg, and will be used by the CFEL group to set up a series of experiments dedicated to laser-plasma acceleration of electrons and the subsequent generation of x-ray beams from these novel sources. The work directly links laser and (traditional) accelerator science, covering not only the laser-driven acceleration of electrons, but also all sorts of diagnostic techniques (involving lasers). The beamlines are currently being established and the first experiments are expected by the end of 2014.

Visit www.cfel.de and laola.desy.de for more detailed information.