DESY – Lightsources.org

When carbon and nitrogen meet under pressure

2026/03/092026/03/19

Three recent papers expand understanding of chemistry relevant to biology and industry

When it comes to the chemical elements, few are simultaneously as ubiquitous and necessary as carbon and nitrogen. They form the backbone of life, they enable many catalytic processes used in industry, they lie at the heart of many key materials in our everyday lives, and they make up over 78% of the composition of our atmosphere (almost all of that amount being nitrogen). Their chemistry has been widely studied for centuries, forming the foundation of organic chemistry and revealing entire libraries’ worth of reactions across inorganic chemistry. That chemistry forms the basis for common methods in mining, electroplating, pharmacology, and much more. But an international research team led by scientists at the Goethe University Frankfurt have shown that this familiar picture only accounts for a small fraction of what carbon and nitrogen can do—one just has to turn up the heat and the pressure. A series of studies published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) and Angewandte Chemie International Edition reveal that under high pressure, carbon and nitrogen can simultaneously react with a variety of metals. The results could have a strong influence on future functional materials.

Carbon and nitrogen from very stable compounds. Molecular nitrogen N₂ in the atmosphere, in particular, forms triple bonds that require a large amount of energy to break, and solid elemental carbon can be arranged to make diamonds, among the hardest and most corrosion-resistant compounds known. While carbon and nitrogen do react at ambient pressure forming cyanogen (CN)₂ – a colorless toxic gas — their behavior can completely change under high pressure.

However, the studies ley by scientists from the Goethe University Frankfurt revealed new pathways to make novel carbon-nitrogen anions through the use of extreme pressures. By pressing the reacting substances between two diamonds—in a device called a diamond anvil cell—while simultaneously heating the reactants at high precision using lasers, the team could get the nitrogen and carbon to bond together forming negatively charged ions, which are stabilized in novel compounds with positively-charged metallic ions.

Image: Using diamond anvil cells and laser heating, the research team has been able to produce new kinds of chemical reactions with ultra-stable carbon and nitrogen atoms, allowing them to form novel compounds with metals such as bismuth, cadmium, calcium, and europium.

Credit: Goethe University Frankfurt

European XFEL receives new electron source

2025/09/222025/10/02

The European XFEL, the world’s largest X-ray laser, is taking another leap forward. On 17 September, a brand-new electron source, known as “GUN5”, was delivered to Hamburg after years of development and rigorous testing at DESY’s Photo Injector Test Facility (PITZ) in Zeuthen. During the current extended maintenance period, the source is being installed in the accelerator’s injector – a critical upgrade that will directly enhance the laser’s experimental capabilities.

“The next generation of electron source for our accelerator is crucial because it enables higher stability and efficiency, directly advancing accelerator performance, scientific discovery, and underlining European XFEL’s role as a global leading research facility,” says Thomas Feurer, Director and Chairman of the Management Board of European XFEL, underlining the importance of this component. The future provision of even brighter, faster and more stable X-ray flashes by the European XFEL from the beginning of 2026 will enable scientists from all over the world to study matter at the atomic level even better – from the dynamics of chemical reactions and the behaviour of quantum materials to the structures of viruses or biomolecules. “With the modernised accelerator, European XFEL will continue to push the boundaries of science and technology and offer researchers unprecedented opportunities to explore the building blocks of life and our world,” states Feurer.

For a free-electron laser to work, one factor is key: the density of electrons in each accelerated bunch. The denser the bunch, the more efficiently it can interact with the self-generated X-ray light in the undulator, creating the ultrashort, brilliant flashes of light that make the European XFEL unique.

Remarkably, the crucial parameters are set within the very first 30 centimetres of acceleration – a tiny section that ultimately determines the success of experiments taking place over three kilometres away at the facility in Schenefeld.

Developing reliable and powerful electron sources – called “guns” – has therefore been essential to building and operating free-electron lasers. At European XFEL and its sister facility FLASH, both based on superconducting accelerator technology, these sources have been a cornerstone since the 1990s.

Inside an XFEL gun, an intense laser beam frees electrons from a specially coated metal surface, the cathode, via the photoelectric effect. These electrons are then rapidly accelerated by strong radio frequency fields in a copper cavity. The process has to happen in fractions of a second: if electrons spread out too much, the bunch density is lost. The rapid acceleration process benefits from a relativistic effect that limits the repulsion between the electrons. This allows the researchers to keep the electron bunches very compact and therefore the charge density very high.

The development of the sources began in the 1990s, together with research into superconducting accelerator technology, when DESY decided to build a free-electron X-ray laser. The new generation, GUN5, builds on these decades of expertise at PITZ in Zeuthen and DESY in Hamburg. While the fourth generation (GUN4) has been in use since the start of European XFEL operations in 2017, plans for improvements were already under discussion during commissioning. “Out of these discussions came the fifth generation, with a refined shape, integrated field probes, enhanced cooling, improved mechanics for swapping cathodes, and a double input window. These advancements allow the gun to be more stable and reliable in the future,” says Frank Stephan, leader of PITZ.

Image: The next generation of electron source was delivered to the injector building of the European XFEL on the DESY campus. It enables higher stability and efficiency, directly advancing accelerator performance.

Credit: European XFEL, Sven Kamin

Metallic nanocatalysts: what really happens during catalysis

2025/09/102025/09/11

Using a combination of spectromicroscopy at BESSY II and microscopic analyses at DESY’s NanoLab, a team has gained new insights into the chemical behaviour of nanocatalysts during catalysis. The nanoparticles consisted of a platinum core with a rhodium shell. This configuration allows a better understanding of structural changes in, for example, rhodium-platinum catalysts for emission control. The results show that under typical catalytic conditions, some of the rhodium in the shell can diffuse into the interior of the nanoparticles. However, most of it remains on the surface and oxidises. This process is strongly dependent on the surface orientation of the nanoparticle facets.

Nanoparticles measure less than one ten-thousandth of a millimetre in diameter and have enormous surface areas in relation to their mass. This makes them attractive as catalysts: metallic nanoparticles can facilitate chemical conversions, whether for environmental protection, industrial synthesis or the production of (sustainable) fuels from CO₂ and hydrogen.

Platinum core with Rhodium shell

Platinum (Pt) is one of the best-known metal catalysts and is used in heterogeneous gas phase catalysis for emission control, for example to convert toxic carbon monoxide in car exhaust gases from combustion engines into non-toxic CO₂. ‘Mixing platinum particles with the element rhodium (Rh) can further increase efficiency,’ says Jagrati Dwivedi, first author of the publication. The location of the two elements plays an important role in this process. So-called core-shell nanoparticles with a platinum core and an extremely thin rhodium shell can help in the search for the optimal element distribution that can extend the lifetime of the nanoparticles.

Experiments at BESSY II and DESY NanoLab

Until now, however, little was known about how the chemical composition of a catalyst’s surface changes during operation. A team led by Dr Thomas F. Keller, head of the microscopy group at DESY NanoLab, has now investigated such crystalline Pt-Rh nanoparticles at BESSY II and gained new insights into the changes at the facets of the polyhedral nanoparticles.

The nanoparticles were first characterised and marked in their vicinity using scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy at DESY NanoLab. These markers were then used to analyse the same nanoparticles spectroscopically and image them microscopically simultaneously using X-ray light on a special instrument at BESSY II.

The SMART instrument at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society enables X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) in a microscope mode. This makes it possible to distinguish individual elements with high spatial resolution, enabling the observation of chemical processes at near-surface atomic layers. ‘The instrument allows the chemical analysis of individual elements with a resolution of 5-10 nanometres, which is unique,’ says Thomas Keller. The investigation has shown that rhodium can partially diffuse into the platinum cores during catalysis: both elements are miscible at the typical operating temperatures of the catalyst. The mixing is enhanced in a reducing environment (H₂) and slowed down in an oxidising environment (O₂) without reversing the net flow of rhodium into platinum. ‘At higher temperatures, this process even increases significantly,’ explains Keller.

A milestone for laser plasma acceleration

2025/04/092025/04/11

A DESY team substantially improved the properties of a laser-plasma accelerated electron beam opening up new areas of applications

Laser plasma acceleration is a potentially disruptive technology: It could be used to build far more compact accelerators and open up new use cases in fundamental research, industry and health. However, on the path to real-world applications, some properties of the plasma-driven electron beam as delivered by current prototype accelerators still need to be refined. DESY’s LUX experiment has now made significant progress in this direction: Using a clever correction system, a research team was able to significantly improve the quality of electron bunches accelerated by a laser plasma accelerator. This brings the technology a step closer to concrete applications, such as a plasma-based injector for a synchrotron storage ring. The research group presents their results in the journal Nature.Conventional electron accelerators use radio waves which are directed into so-called resonator cavities. The radio waves transfer energy to the electrons as they fly past, increasing their velocity. To achieve high energies, many resonators have to be connected in series making the machines large and costly. Laser-plasma acceleration is promising a novel compact alternative. Short, intense laser pulses are shot into a small hydrogen-filled capillary generating a plasma – an ionised gas. When the laser pulse passes through the plasma, it creates a wake similar to the wake of a high-speed boat travelling though water. This wake can accelerate a bunch of electrons to enormous energies within a few millimetres.

To date, the innovative technology has had some drawbacks. “The electron bunches produced are not yet uniform enough,” explains Andreas Maier, lead scientist for plasma acceleration at DESY. “We would like each bunch to look precisely like the next one.” Another challenge concerns the energy distribution within a bunch. Figuratively speaking, some electrons fly faster than others which is unsuitable for practical applications. In modern accelerators, these problems have long been solved by using clever machine control systems.

Using a two-stage correction, the DESY team has now succeeded in significantly improving the properties of the electron bunches produced by their laser-plasma accelerator. To achieve this, electrons accelerated by the LUX plasma accelerator are sent through a chicane consisting of four deflecting magnets. By forcing the particles to take a detour, the pulses are stretched in time and sorted according to their energy. “After the particles have passed the magnetic chicane, the faster, higher-energy electrons are at the front of the pulse,” explains Paul Winkler, first author of the study. “The slower, relatively low-energy particles are at the back.”

The stretched and energy-sorted bunch is then sent into a single accelerator module similar to those used in modern radiofrequency-based facilities. In this resonator, the electron bunches are slightly decelerated or further accelerated. “If you time the beam arrival carefully to the radio frequency, the low-energy electrons at the back of the bunch can be accelerated and the high-energy electrons at the front can be decelerated,” explains Winkler. “This compresses the energy distribution.” The team was able to reduce the energy spread by a factor of 18 and the fluctuation in the central energy by a factor of 72. Both values are smaller than one permille making them comparable to those of conventional accelerators.

“This project is a fantastic example of the collaboration between theory and experiment,” says Wim Leemans, Director of the Accelerator Division at DESY. “The theoretical concept was recently proposed and has now been implemented for the first time.” Most of the components used were from existing DESY stocks. The project team had to invest a great effort in setting up the correction stage and synchronising the extremely rapid processes. “But once that was done things went surprisingly well,” says Winkler. “On the very first day when everything was set up, we switched on the system and immediately observed an effect.” After a few days of fine-tuning, it was clear that the correction system was working as intended.

Volcano’s explosive eruptions defy predictions

2025/03/192025/03/20

3D X-ray images can help scientists understand and mitigate hazards of strong volcanic eruptions

More than 800 million people live near an active volcano. Some of these volcanoes still defy existing models, making the exact prediction of their eruptions impossible. This is the case for Colli Albani in Italy which has produced major explosions in the past despite its magma being normally associated with mild effusive eruptions. An international team led by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and including researchers from DESY and Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon is shedding light on this mystery using an innovative approach: analysing crystals that retain traces of the last eruption using PETRA III. Published in the Journal of Petrology, this study paves the way for new analytical methods in volcanology and strengthens hazard mitigation.

Monitoring volcanoes to anticipate their potentially devastating effects requires a detailed understanding of the signals that precede an eruption. However, this task becomes challenging when a volcano defies predictive models—such as Colli Albani, located just 20 kilometres from Rome. In theory, its magmatic composition should result in low-intensity eruptions. Yet, its past eruptions tell a different story.

Magma contains volatiles (mainly water and carbon dioxide), like opening the cap of a bottle of soda, when the magma rises toward the surface, it releases the volatiles, and the more viscous the magma, the more difficult it is for the gas to escape. The retention of gas results in a progressive increase of pressure which eventually leads to violent explosive eruptions. In theory, Colli Albani should not pose this risk as its magma is not very viscous. Yet, it has produced several violent and large volume explosive eruptions, the most recent occurring 355,000 years ago, when it spewed up to 30 km³ of scorching ash and molten rock into the atmosphere.

To learn more, the research team analysed ‘‘melt inclusions’’ from the magma of the last eruption with the help of synchrotron radiation. These tiny droplets of magma, measuring just one-hundredth of a millimetre, were sealed inside crystals before the explosion, preserving valuable clues about the magma’s chemistry, its water and carbon dioxide content—key factors in its explosiveness—as well as its temperature and pressure. In total, the researchers studied 35 crystals containing 2,000 inclusions.

An Innovative Approach to Probing Magma

Scientists from UNIGE collaborated with several institutions, including DESY, the University of Rome Tre, the University of Bristol and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon. Using PETRA III, the team was able to obtain high-resolution 3D X-ray images of magma inclusions.

“This approach is innovative in volcanology, particularly in the study of melt inclusions. It opens up new perspectives in the field,” explains Corin Jorgenson, first author of the study and a doctoral student at the Department of Earth Sciences of the UNIGE Faculty of Science at the time of the research, now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.

Image: Photomicrograph of a clinopyroxene crystal. This mineral formed in a magma chamber. Melt Inclusions (in black) are present in these crystals.

Credit: Corin Jorgenson, University of Strathclyde

Britta Redlich takes over as Photon Science Director at DESY

2024/12/162024/12/18

Former director of the Dutch research facility HFML-FELIX comes to Hamburg

Britta Redlich will take over the lead of the Photon Science research division at DESY on 1 January 2025. The Professor of experimental physics was previously Director of the FELIX free-electron laser and the HFML high-field magnetic laboratory at Radboud University in Nijmegen (Netherlands).

Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors, is looking forward to working together with her: “Britta Redlich´s experience and passion for research are an enrichment for DESY. With her appointment, DESY has gained a personality who shares and will drive forward our vision of cutting-edge research and technological innovation. I am convinced that she will provide decisive momentum for the future of Photon Science at DESY, in Europe and worldwide.”

Britta Redlich received her doctorate in chemistry from the University of Hanover in 1998 and initially worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Münster. In 2000, she went to the FOM Institute Rijnhuizen in the Netherlands with an Emmy Noether Programme from the German Research Foundation. She conducted research with the FELIX (Free-Electron Lasers for Infrared eXperiment) free-electron laser and was in charge of its operation from 2003. After the laser was transferred to Radboud University Nijmegen in 2013, she took on the role of Chairwoman in 2015, became Director of FELIX in 2018 and also Director of HFML (High Field Magnet Laboratory) in 2023.

Britta Redlich is a Senator of the Helmholtz Association for the Research Field Matter and a member of international consortia such as LEAPS, LaserLab Europe and FELs of Europe. Collaboration in these networks has expanded her expertise in the development and utilisation of state-of-the-art light sources.

Image: Chemist and Professor of experimental physics Britta Redlich will head the Photon Science research division at DESY from January 2025.

Credit: DESY, Jörg Müller

Squeeze it! High-power attosecond X-ray pulses at megahertz repetition rates

2024/11/242024/11/25

A research team at European XFEL and DESY has achieved a major advance in X-ray science by generating unprecedented high-power attosecond hard X-ray pulses at megahertz repetition rates. This advancement opens new frontiers in the study of ultrafast electron dynamics and enables non-destructive measurements at the atomic level.

Researchers have demonstrated single-spike hard X-ray pulses with pulse energies exceeding 100 microjoules and pulse durations of only a few hundred attoseconds. An attosecond is one quintillionth (10^-18) of a second—a timescale that allows scientists to capture even the fastest electron movements in matter.

“These high-power attosecond X-ray pulses could open new avenues for studying matter at the atomic scale,” says Jiawei Yan, physicist at European XFEL and lead author of the study published in Nature Photonics. “With these unique X-rays, we can perform truly damage-free measurements of structural and electronic properties. This paves the way for advanced studies like attosecond crystallography, allowing us to observe electronic dynamics in real space.”

Traditional methods for generating such ultra-short hard X-ray pulses required dramatically reducing the electron bunch charge to tens of picocoulombs, which limited the pulse energy and practical use. The team developed a self-chirping method, utilizing the collective effects of electron beams and specialized beam transport systems at the European XFEL. This approach enables the generation of attosecond X-ray pulses at terawatt-scale peak power and megahertz repetition rates without reducing the electron bunch charge.

“By combining ultra-short pulses with megahertz repetition rates, we can now collect data much faster and observe processes that were previously hidden from view”, says Gianluca Geloni, group leader of the FEL physics group at the European XFEL. “This development promises to transform research across multiple scientific fields, especially for atomic-scale imaging of protein molecules and materials and investigating nonlinear X-ray phenomena.”

Image: Scientists at European XFEL and DESY produce high-power attosecond X-ray pulses at megahertz repetition rates. With the help of special beam optics relativistic electrons (blue cloud) are strongly compressed (bright line in the centre). This leads to a very bright, high-power X-ray pulse on the attosecond timescale.

Credit: European XFEL; Illustration: Tobias Wüstefeld

Groundbreaking ceremony for new technology and start-up centre at DESY

2024/11/202024/11/22

Construction of the DESY Innovation Factory in the centre of Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld has begun.

A combined total of more than 8,500 square meters of workspace will be created in just three years of construction at two locations: the main site on the DESY campus and a second very close by in the Altona Innovation Park. Complex laboratories, offices, and open working environments will be built to optimally foster the flow and transfer of knowledge and technology from research to industry and society.

From 2027 onward, the DESY Innovation Factory will serve pre-founders, start-ups, and scale-ups, as well as partners from applied research and collaborations with industry as an innovation centre for life sciences, new materials, and quantum technologies. It will bolster a unique ecosystem in Germany in which these stakeholders can not only optimally develop their ideas, but also benefit from a wide range of networking, events, and advice.

The centre targets research disciplines, sectors, and subjects that are particularly promising for the future of society: In the context of Life Sciences, these are active ingredient and vaccine research, medical technology, and diagnostics. In New Materials, the focus is on sustainable and intelligent materials that are particularly durable or efficient to use. Quantum Technologies focuses on modern forms of computing, sensor technology, and quantum materials.

For DESY, the DESY Innovation Factory is a further milestone in its strategy to continuously develop the campus into a centre of deep-tech innovation. The globally unique large-scale research facilities and their specially trained staff will also increasingly benefit companies in the future in order to jointly develop cutting-edge products and technologies.

Image: Breaking ground for the DESY Innovation Factory (from left): Helmut Dosch (DESY), Volkmar Dietz (Federal Ministry for Education and Research), Melanie Leonhard (Hamburg Senator for Economics), Eva Gümbel (Hamburg State Councillor for Science), Arik Willner and Hansjörg Wiese (both DESY).

Credit: DESY, Axel Heimken

PETRA IV project – moving forward towards funding

2024/11/182024/11/21

The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has officially confirmed PETRA IV is participating in the “National Prioritization Procedure for Large-scale Research Infrastructures. A team from DESY has prepared a short concept according to the BMBF’s specifications. The concept of the conversion of PETRA III into a state-of-the-art 4th generation X-ray light source is entitled: “PETRA IV – the ultimate 4D X-ray microscope”. The next major milestone for PETRA IV will be the approval of the overall project. A funding commitment by mid-2026 at the latest is important for further planning to avoid major delays in implementation. As the shortlist is not linked to a funding commitment, it will be up to the future government to provide the funding. DESY is ready to realise PETRA IV on time and within budget. The project team of about 50 people has worked out the technical design and has already completed other important planning steps. Thanks to start-up funding, a preparatory programme was launched in September 2024. As a result, the planning and construction of prototypes for PETRA IV are progressing. Thanks to the advanced stage of planning, PETRA IV’s construction can start immediately after approval. Further preparatory work will take place between 2027 and 2029. The existing PETRA III complex is scheduled to be shut down in December 2029. The first light from PETRA IV is expected in 2032.

Image: Visualisation of the future PETRA IV tunnel

Credit: Science Communication Lab, DESY

DESY increases cooperation with Indian partners

2024/10/242024/10/28

DESY delegation visits India as part of India–Germany government consultations and signs an agreement on increasing cooperation with India at PETRA III

DESY and numerous Indian research institutes want to work more closely together in the future. To this end, representatives of these institutes have made an agreement during a delegation visit of the German federal government to New Delhi. In the context of the seventh German–Indian governmental consultations and in celebration of 50 years of Indian-German scientific collaboration, a collaboration agreement was signed in the presence of Federal Minister for Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger and her Indian counterpart, Dr Jitendra Singh. The DESY delegation was led by acting director for photon science Franz Kärtner.

The research centre DESY and numerous research groups in India under the current coordination of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in Bengaluru have built a successful partnership since 2011 in the form of “India@DESY”, which all participating partners want to strengthen. The goal of the newly signed cooperation agreement is to increase the user participation of Indian scientists, institutes, and cooperation projects at DESY’s research light sources, particularly at the high-brilliance X-ray light source PETRA III. Additionally, India has declared interest in preparing a significant participation in DESY’s future project PETRA IV. The agreement particularly specifies a focus on experiments in the areas of energy, nanotechnology, and materials science.

India@DESY has been developing since a previous agreement was signed regarding research collaboration in 2011 as part of an earlier major diplomatic delegation led by then Chancellor Angela Merkel. Since the signing of the last agreement, India has invested 25 million euro in a beamline for Indian researchers at PETRA III and over 1400 Indian scientists from more than 60 different institutes have performed over 450 experiments, with more than 360 scientific articles being published within the scope of India@DESY. Many of these publications were regarding energy and catalysis research, aimed at helping India make a sustainable transition. The goal is to redevelop energy production and industrial processes in such a way that they are more environmentally friendly and less taxing on resources, in order to solve longstanding ecological and social issues.

The new agreement covers the next two years of cooperation and focuses on increasing Indian user experiments at PETRA III by 15% while preparing for significant participation in PETRA IV. The agreement includes 4.4 million euro for PETRA III and the planning of numerous workshops targeting research advancements and possibilities for Indian collaboration.

Image: Signing of the cooperation agreement ‘India@DESY’ in New Delhi. Front l-r: Eswaramoorthy Muthusamy, Dean of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research; Franz Kärtner, DESY Acting Research Director for Photon Science. Background, middle: l-r: Jitendra Singh, Indian Minister for Science and Technology; Bettina Stark-Watzinger, Federal Minister for Education and Research

Credit: DESY

Preparing young engineers for cutting-edge science

2024/05/212024/05/23

The MEDSI Early Career Engineering School 2024, held at European XFEL and DESY from 13 to 17 May, trained 80 young engineers and early career specialists in the design of state-of-the-art instrumentation for X-ray laser and synchrotron light sources.

Organised by European XFEL and DESY as part of the international MEDSI (Mechanical Engineering Design of Synchrotron Radiation Equipment and Instrumentation) conference series, the school focused on sharing knowledge to address the unique challenges of the technologies used in X-ray science facilities and instruments.

Participants learned about various technical aspects related to the mechanical design, construction and operation of synchrotron radiation facilities. The main objectives were to familiarise the participants with the main components of XFEL and synchrotron radiation sources, to introduce important design parameters and engineering tools, and to provide a basic understanding of X-ray optics and diagnostics.

In addition, experts from DESY, European XFEL and partner institutes presented new concepts and technologies for use in beamlines and experiments, and used practical examples to impart specialist knowledge for the design of key components.

With a focus on equipping young professionals with the necessary skills to meet future challenges, the MEDSI Early Career Engineering School 2024 served as a central platform for fostering expertise and innovation in synchrotron instrumentation design.

Image: The MEDSI Early Career Engineering School 2024

New imaging technique for deeper insights in breast cancer metastasis

2024/03/122024/03/13

A collaborative effort between researchers from DESY, the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Chalmers University in Sweden and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland has yielded a cutting-edge multimodal imaging approach to investigate breast cancer tissue. With the help of this technique, researchers can simultaneously extract information about the nanostructure of the tumor and quantify the chemical elements present in a millimeter-scale sample in all three dimensions. A unique combination of research possibilities at PETRA III and new analysis methods enables this high level of detail.

Breast cancer caused 685 000 deaths globally in 2020 according to the WHO. It is not life-threatening in its earliest form. But if the cancer cells are able to spread further in the tissue to nearby lymph nodes or important organs, this metastasis can be fatal. In a recent pilot study published in Nature Scientific Reports, the team applied this revolutionary imaging approach to a breast cancer sample. The results show how key molecules collectively influence the metastatic mechanism. This breakthrough paves the way for an in-depth investigation of breast cancer metastasis, promising novel therapeutic approaches and personalised treatment strategies, which could ultimately improve patients’ lives if recognized early enough.

Traditional experimental models often fall short, relying on 2D cell cultures or animal models that do not faithfully replicate the complex physiological patterns of human tumor environments. The multimodal imaging approach presented in this study represents a significant step forward by providing simultaneous nanoscale morphological and physiological information from real samples, thus giving researchers information about the shape and composition of real cancer tissue.

André Conceição, the first author and beamline scientist at the PETRA III SAXSMAT beamline P62, emphasises, “Although demonstrated for breast cancer, this approach’s versatility extends to other organs and diseases.”

The study opens avenues for further exploration of breast cancer metastasis and pre-metastatic niches (PMNs). Advanced X-ray multimodal tomography can generate complementary 3D maps for different breast cancer molecular subtypes. It holds the potential to contribute to the development of more targeted and effective strategies for diagnosis and treatment.

Image: 3D vector field of the collagen direction and degree of orientation obtained by SAXS-Tensor-Tomography

First-ever X-ray attosecond experiment on liquids provides new insights into water’s molecular properties

2024/02/152024/02/20

Theorists explain how X-ray measurement freezes hydrogen motion, with implications on other areas of chemistry

An international team has performed an attosecond-scale experiment at an X-ray free-electron laser on liquid water for the first time, and the results may change our interpretation of water’s behaviour. The experiment team, led by scientist Linda Young from Argonne National Laboratory in the US, found an unusual signal when they examined liquid water using X-ray flashes that were timed a few hundred attoseconds (an attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second). A theory team led by Robin Santra, lead scientist at the research centre DESY and a professor at Universität Hamburg in Germany, and Xiaosong Li, a professor at the University of Washington in the US, used quantum-mechanical techniques for the analysis. Based on the data of the new experiment, they found that a longstanding measurement of the structure of liquid water has been misinterpreted. The effects of this finding not only demonstrate the potential of attosecond research on condensed matter at X-ray lasers, which is so far unprecedented, but also may require a rethink on how a wide range of molecules beyond water, especially organic ones, are structured. The findings have been published in the journal Science.

DESY’s experience and techniques were crucial in this result and form a cornerstone towards the future Centre for Molecular Water Science (CMWS) that DESY is setting up. The experimental and theoretical teams for this result comprise scientists from Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Washington, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Washington State University, the University of Chicago, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, all in the US; and DESY, Universität Hamburg, and the Hamburg Cluster of Excellence “CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter,” all in Germany.

Image: Georgi Dakovski operating the LCLS ChemRIXS beamline, where the experiment was carried out during the pandemic

Credit: Linda Young

Electron bubbles modelled from X-ray laser data

2024/02/012024/02/01

An international team of scientists uncovers a groundbreaking model for the effects of radiation in water systems

What happens when radiation hits water? This is a question that has an impact every time you get an X-ray at the doctor’s office, given you are mostly made of water. A team of theoretical physicists at DESY has worked on data taken by colleagues from Argonne National Laboratory in the US at the LCLS X-ray laser in California to get a better answer to this question. What they found may settle a controversy in physics about the presence of free electrons in water and how they behave at very short time scales: the electrons, unbound to atoms, become sequestered in bubbles in cage-like structures between individual water molecules. These findings are reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Free electrons are electrons that are not bound to atoms. In water that comes into contact with radiation, free electrons emerge from the water molecules as they ionise due to the radiation. How the electrons flow between the water molecules in this situation has been a topic of discussion for a longer time.

In their work at LCLS at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, the experimental team, led by Argonne scientist Linda Young, saw odd signatures associated with the water molecules excited by lasers and imaged by the X-ray laser. They found structures among the molecules using X-ray absorption spectroscopy. In order to gain a better understanding of what these results meant, the experiment team turned to theoretical physicists in Hamburg.

A team led by DESY scientist Ludger Inhester of the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science examined the data and began making models from the data in coordination with the experimental team. Together their findings show that the free electrons in the water form bubble structures that are then caged in by water molecules, similar to how chemicals are solvated in water at the molecular level. In particular, the DESY team managed to show the process behind this solvation of electrons in the water and its parameters.

Image: Using the X-ray laser LCLS in California, the experiment team, led by Argonne scientist Linda Young, could image the structures of the water molecules surrounding the electron bubbles. The theory team in Hamburg, led by CFEL senior scientist Ludger Inhester was able to model how the bubble itself behaved using the experiment team’s data.

Credit: DESY/ Arturo Sopena Moros

From beams to bytes: navigating data management for users of PaN facilities

2023/11/202023/12/07

Embark on a journey “From Beams to Bytes” with this 7:53-minute video, tailored for users of Photon and Neutron (PaN) facilities in Europe.

Through a blend of animations and interviews from insiders, we guide you through the essential steps of creating a data management plan for your experiment.

Watch the video on the PaNOSC EOSC YouTube channel

🔗 Useful links and references from the video:

– 2:18: example of DMP tools: Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO), Data Stewarship Wizard (DSW), DMPonline, DMPTool, EasyDMP, OpenDMP. See https://pan-training.eu/materials/rdm…

– 2:50: public repositories of PaN facilities: https://www.panosc.eu/services/data-c…

– 3:10: EOSC data search https://search.marketplace.eosc-porta… and Zenodo https://zenodo.org

– 3:40: the NeXus format https://www.nexusformat.org/

– 4:45: metadata framework: Soler, N. (2023). ExPaNDS Guidance Note: Key Recommendation Elements for FAIR Photon and Neutron Data Management. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7680072 and FAIRsharing.org https://fairsharing.org/

– 4:50: orcid https://orcid.org/, PIDINST https://www.pidinst.org/, PaNET http://purl.org/pan-science/PaNET

– 5:05: VISA https://www.panosc.eu/services/data-a…

– 7:03: workflow feature of PaN training.eu https://pan-training.eu/workflows

Milestone for novel atomic clock

2023/09/272023/09/28

X-ray laser shows possible route to substantially increased precision time measurement

An international research team has taken a decisive step toward a new generation of atomic clocks. At the European XFEL X-ray laser, the researchers have created a much more precise pulse generator based on the element scandium, which enables an accuracy of one second in 300 billion years – that is about a thousand times more precise than the current standard atomic clock based on caesium. The team presents its success in the journal Nature.

Atomic clocks are currently the world’s most accurate timekeepers. These clocks have used electrons in the atomic shell of chemical elements, such as caesium, as a pulse generator in order to define the time. These electrons can be raised to a higher energy level with microwaves of a known frequency. In the process, they absorb the microwave radiation. An atomic clock shines microwaves at caesium atoms and regulates the frequency of the radiation such that the absorption of the microwaves is maximised; experts call this a resonance. The quartz oscillator that generates the microwaves can be kept so stable with the help of resonance that caesium clocks will be accurate to within one second within 300 million years.

Crucial to the accuracy of an atomic clock is the width of the resonance used. Current caesium atomic clocks already use a very narrow resonance; strontium atomic clocks achieve a higher accuracy with only one second in 15 billion years. Further improvement is practically impossible to achieve with this method of electron excitation. Therefore, teams around the world have been working for several years on the concept of a “nuclear” clock, which uses transitions in the atomic nucleus as the pulse generator rather than in the atomic shell. Nuclear resonances are much more acute than the resonances of electrons in the atomic shell, but also much harder to excite.

At the European XFEL the team could now excite a promising transition in the nucleus of the element scandium, which is readily available as a high-purity metal foil or as the compound scandium dioxide This resonance requires X-rays with an energy of 12.4 kiloelectronvolts (keV, which is about 10,000 times the energy of visible light) and has a width of only 1.4 femtoelectronvolts (feV). This is 1.4 quadrillionths of an electronvolt, which is only about one tenth of a trillionth of the excitation energy (10^-19). This makes an accuracy of 1:10,000,000,000,000 possible. “This corresponds to one second in 300 billion years,” says DESY researcher Ralf Röhlsberger, who works at the Helmholtz Institute Jena, a joint facility of the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), and DESY.

Image: An artist’s rendition of the scandium nuclear clock: scientists used the X-ray pulses of the European XFEL to excite in the atomic nucleus of scandium the sort of processes that can generate a clock signal – at an unprecedented precision of one second in 300 billion years.

Credit: European XFEL/Helmholtz Institute Jena, Tobias Wüstefeld/Ralf Röhlsberger