The future of BESSY
This is what the successor source BESSY III could look like in the future. © Rendering: HZB
At the end of February 2024, a team at HZB published an article in Synchrotron Radiation News (SRN). They describe the next development goals for the light source as well as the BESSY II+ upgrade programme and the successor source BESSY III.
In autumn 2023, HZB celebrated 25 years of research at the BESSY II light source in Berlin-Adlershof. To continue offering scientists from all over the world the best research opportunities in the coming decades, it is important to have a vision for BESSY II. In addition, many light sources around the world are currently being modernised or even newly built to keep up with the latest research questions and contribute with state-of-the art research infrastructures.
The article "Material Discovery at BESSY" shows the relevance of BESSY light source for the research questions of the future. The HZB team describes the goals of the BESSY II+ upgrade programme. Among other things, the programme aims to expand operando techniques that are of great benefit in developing materials for the energy transition.
BESSY II+ is a bridge between BESSY II and the successor source BESSY III, which is scheduled to go into operation in the mid-2030s. It is set to become the "materials discovery machine": a combination of the extremely bright, soft 4th generation light source, the integrated research campus in Berlin-Adlershof and the quantitative measurement capabilities of the national metrology institute (PTB, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) from synchrotron research.
The article has been published in open access and can be read in the journal SRN, which specialises in synchrotron research.
- Ultrafast dissociation of molecules studied at BESSY IIFor the first time, an international team has tracked at BESSY II how heavy molecules – in this case bromochloromethane – disintegrate into smaller fragments when they absorb X-ray light. Using a newly developed analytical method, they were able to visualise the ultrafast dynamics of this process. In this process, the X-ray photons trigger a "molecular catapult effect": light atomic groups are ejected first, similar to projectiles fired from a catapult, while the heavier atoms - bromine and chlorine - separate more slowly.
- Protons against cancer: New research beamline for innovative radiotherapiesTogether with the University of the Bundeswehr Munich, the HZB has set up a new beamline for preclinical research. It will enable experiments on biological samples on innovative radiation therapies with protons.
- Battery research with the HZB X-ray microscopeNew cathode materials are being developed to further increase the capacity of lithium batteries. Multilayer lithium-rich transition metal oxides (LRTMOs) offer particularly high energy density. However, their capacity decreases with each charging cycle due to structural and chemical changes. Using X-ray methods at BESSY II, teams from several Chinese research institutions have now investigated these changes for the first time with highest precision: at the unique X-ray microscope, they were able to observe morphological and structural developments on the nanometre scale and also clarify chemical changes.