Design improvement at European XFEL

The European XFEL under construction at Hamburg in Germany aims to have the first beam ready in 2015. Very recently, it was found that the design parameters can be further improved. The first revision is to the energy range. This will now be 260 eV - 25 keV, while the 2006 design was 800 eV - 12.4 keV. The second is X-ray pulse duration. This will become of variable duration from a few femtoseconds (fs) to about 100 fs, instead of about 100 fs only. Such upgrades will be realized by improving electron beam quality by building on the experience with the X-ray free-electron laser at Stanford. For further information, visit the Web page, http://www.xfel.eu/news/2011/x_ray_flashes_revised/