Around 600 scientists visit the facility for experiments during user period.
The third user experiment period at European XFEL, which ran from November 2018, was successfully completed in June 2019. The X-ray beam was available for experiments for a total of 18 weeks. Twenty-eight user experiments were carried out at all six instruments, and 599 users were welcomed to the facility.
While only two instruments were operational at the beginning of the run, a further four started operation during the period, so that all six instruments were operational by the end of the run. Many other systems also had to first be prepared so that everything worked together. This included the accelerator and electron beam system, which could distribute the beam on demand to the different light sources. Other systems that were optimized to reach the goal of parallel operation of all three beamlines included the X-ray optics and diagnostic systems in the tunnels, elements at the instruments themselves that deal with the X-ray beam and specimen delivery, detectors, and software and data storage systems.
>Read more on the European XFEL website
Picture: The MID experiment station was one of the four to begin user operation during user run 3.
Credit: European XFEL / Jan Hosan