3.4-km-long X-ray Laser Will Expose the Interior of Atoms

With 27,000 X-ray pulses per second, the laser will reveal the innermost secrets of atoms.

Compared to its competitors, the European XFEL X-ray laser will be much more intensive, when it is inaugurated in 2017. The X-ray laser stretches 3.4 km through underground tunnels from the DESY research centre in Hamburg, Germany. By emitting X-ray pulses, which are one billion times more powerful than ordinary X-rays, 27,000 times per second, the XFEL can illuminate and expose atoms and molecules in closer detail than ever before and so reveal the molecular make-up of cells or the tiniest atomic details of a virus.