Biggest X-ray laser gun on earth opens in September 2017

The biggest X-ray laser gun on earth named, European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL), will begin operating in September 2017.

The European XFEL will shoot 27000 laser pulses per second, 200 times more per second than the next highest-performing gun in California.

The 1.5 billion-euro laser replaces its predecessor, FLASH, in Germany.

About European X-ray Free Electron Laser

• The European X-Ray Free Electron Laser is an X-ray research laser facility currently in commissioning.

• The first laser pulses were produced in May 2017.

• The international project has 11 participating countries. They are Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

• It is located in the German federal states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.

• A free-electron laser generates high-intensity electromagnetic radiation by accelerating electrons to relativistic speeds and directing them through special magnetic structures. The European XFEL is constructed such that the electrons produce x-ray light in synchronisation, resulting in high-intensity x-ray pulses with the properties of laser light and at intensities much brighter than those produced by conventional synchrotron light sources.

• The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research granted permission to build the facility on 5 June 2007 at a cost of 850 million Euro, under the provision that it should be financed as a European project.

• The facility is built and operated by the European XFEL GmbH.

• Civil construction of the facility began on 8 January 2009.