XFEL: Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Dear all,

As another year draws to a close we would like to take a moment to reflect on what we and our users have achieved during these last twelve months, and thank you, our partners, shareholders and collaborators, for the part you played in making European XFEL a scientific success.

A few weeks ago we celebrated European XFEL’s tenth birthday. During our anniversary event we and our many guests looked back at what we, together with our partners, have achieved over the last decade. It cannot be emphasized enough that this would not have been possible without the dedication and vision of so many people from countries from all over the world working together towards a common goal. We are proud to be part of this fantastic undertaking.

During this last year, we have also seen many significant developments. During 2019 our capacity to host user experiments greatly increased. All six instruments are now operational and have run successful experiments. The soft X-ray instruments SCS and SQS started user operation during the last weeks of 2018 and had their first year of full user operation in 2019. Since then they have continued to further develop their instruments, including installing and commissioning new experiment chambers and detectors, all the while steadily increasing their portfolio of experimental set-ups and gathering experience. The last two instruments to start operation, HED and MID, have also celebrated several milestones with fantastic first results. Together with the HIBEF user consortium the team at the HED instrument, for example, recently carried out the very first high pressure experiments exploiting the high repetition rate of European XFEL. The two instruments that have been operational since 2017 have also continued to develop. SPB/SFX users have published many results, including the first molecular movie sequence produced at European XFEL.

Bringing the instruments to operation and enabling user experiments has been a great team effort, to which many groups contributed. Rearrangements of groups within the company have helped ensure that tasks can be addressed more effectively. We have also witnessed great progress for the accelerator and FEL sources. We now routinely reach highest X-ray pulse energies, provide very complex delivery patterns,  and have seen the first results from the self-seeding. These achievements would not be possible without the continued excellent close collaboration with our partner DESY.

We are happy we are now able to demonstrate to our user community the great science European XFEL is capable of enabling.

But of course the work doesn’t stop there.  Next year we will see continued expansion of the facilities and instruments scientific potential as well as further campus development with progress on the guesthouse, completion of the new undulator hall, and tenders for the visitor centre and a new office building.

We thank our partners and shareholders for your continued support and trust, and we wish you a relaxing Christmas break with your families and friends. We look forward to celebrating further success stories and developments with you in the new year!

European XFEL Management Board