Research News
One of the experiments at the measuring stations in the FLASH experimental hall. Photo: DESY
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Looking through Water Windows with FLASH
DESY's free-electron laser FLASH now produces wavelengths of 4.12 nanometres. In this wavelength range, soft X-ray radiation can penetrate water by several micrometres whereas carbon absorbs it to a large extent. This enables, for instance, images of biological objects within small droplets or pictures of cells with a resolution in the 10 nanometre range. This way, FLASH produces laser light in so-called water windows; so far, this was achieved only by laser harmonics. The short-wave light flashes had an average energy of 70 and a peak energy of 130 microjoule. The light in the water window will be available for users as of the coming year. Source: DESYinform/November 2010
