User experiments started at instrument for High Energy Density.
The first experiments have now started at the instrument for High Energy Density (HED) experiments. HED is the sixth and thereby last instrument of European XFEL’s current design configuration to start user operation. With six instruments on three SASE beamlines operational, European XFEL now has the capacity to host three times as many user experiments as compared to when operation began in 2017.
HED combines hard X-ray FEL radiation and the capability to generate matter under extreme conditions of pressure, temperature or electric field. HED will be used for studies of matter occurring inside exoplanets, of new extreme-pressure phases and solid-density plasmas, and of structural phase transitions of complex solids in high magnetic fields. The HED instrument is built in close collaboration with the HiBEF consortium led by Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR).
Next operation goals involve further increasing the capabilities and experiment portfolio of the instruments, increasing the amount of beamtime available for users at the six instruments and achieving successful parallel user operation of all three SASE beamlines. Parallel user operation is expected to start later this year.
>Read more on the European XFEL website
Image: The first users at the HED instrument.
Credit: European XFEL