Beamlines guide the light

This beamline will generate high-energy X-rays that can penetrate particularly deep inside material samples. This will make it possible, for example, to observe in detail how a battery charges and discharges. Such findings could lead to storage materials with a longer-lasting performance.

Here, matter can be studied under extreme conditions, especially at high pressures and temperatures. Among other things, this will allow the production of new, diamond-like materials that exhibit extraordinary mechanical properties.

This will allow processes to be observed in disordered materials, such as plastics or biological cells. As a result, it will be possible to analyse, for example, the role of water molecules in the folding of protein molecules or what happens when a material corrodes.

Using a special robot, samples of materials can be switched automatically, leading to a high sample throughput. This will result in a particularly effective utilisation. The range of research will also be extremely broad. A wide variety of substances can be studied in detail, from new types of solar cells to biological samples and micrometeorites.

Here, samples can be scanned by the fine X-ray beam with pinpoint accuracy, sometimes even with nanometre precision. This will produce high-resolution images containing a great deal of physical information. Among other things, high-tech materials and novel superconductors for quantum technologies can be studied, but also rock samples from comets and asteroids.

This is specialised in the study of biological systems. It will enable trace elements, such as potassium or calcium, to be detected in organisms and the target sites of anti-cancer drugs to be identified. In addition, this beamline will allow extremely high-resolution 3D images to be produced, on which it may even be possible to recognise the orientation of individual biomolecules inside a cell.

Here, the crystal structure of a sample can be analysed selectively and in great detail. This will make it possible to visualise how and where exactly the crystal lattice in a battery electrode can become so bloated as to suffer damage. This would allow more sustainable batteries to be developed.

Among other things, this beamline will allow the electronic and magnetic properties of a sample to be scanned with very high precision as a function of position. This can be useful, for example, in developing highly sensitive magnetic sensors.

This beamline will analyse the electrons that are emitted from a sample when it is illuminated with X-rays. This will allow the electronic properties of semiconductors and novel quantum materials to be measured with extremely high precision. Precise scanning will also allow electronic components to be examined in great detail.