DESY Science Briefing: PETRA IV

Dear readers,

DESY is to receive 40 million euros in start-up funding for the high-tech research facility PETRA IV. This decision was taken by the Budget Committee of the Deutscher Bundestag during its meeting to adjust the 2024 federal budget. The City of Hamburg is contributing a further four million euros. All signs are pointing to innovation – we are set to go!  

New dimensions.

Ready for the future

Our modern lives are governed by things that are invisible to us. Take your smartphone, for example: the microprocessor inside it houses more than 800 million transistors in an area of just one square centimetre. These transistors are a thousand times smaller than a human hair and operate at a breathtaking rate of two billion cycles per second. Or take the coronavirus: with a diameter of one thousandth of a millimetre it is an invisible nano-speck, yet it can pose a massive health risk.

So we need to understand that only by closely observing, understanding and controlling the nanoworld, which is invisible to the human eye, can we shape our future to be sustainable, safe and healthy. Designing better batteries, more effective medicines and recyclable materials must all start at the molecular level. Specialised technologies are indispensable. DESY’s project PETRA IV will provide high-resolution “X-ray eyes” for this purpose. In-depth X-ray vision will make it possible, for example, to optimise solar cells, identify vaccines against viruses or check that a microchip does not contain any flaws.

DESY is the world’s leading centre for developing the super-bright X-rays known as synchrotron radiation. A global pioneer since the 1960s, DESY is now taking a decisive step into the future with PETRA IV. The start-up funding provided by the federal government clearly demonstrates Germany’s willingness to invest in this technology, with its important implications for the future. Similar innovative projects are being actively pursued in the USA, China, and Japan, so there’s no time to lose.

Best regards

DESY Board of Directors

Big vision.

Fundamentally rethinking research: What PETRA IV will be

A worldwide pioneer: DESY’s newly designed large-scale research facility PETRA IV is a 3D X-ray microscope which will surpass everything that went before in terms of brilliance and power. Electrons will travel around the 2.3-kilometre-long accelerator ring at almost the speed of light. The circumference of the ring, together with a new accelerator technology developed specifically for PETRA IV, will produce ultra-bright X-rays that will open up entirely new dimensions for research.

One of a kind: The enormous brightness combined with AI-assisted analysis will allow molecular structures and processes to be analysed with high precision and extremely quickly – live and in 3D. Our understanding of the relationship between structure and function will be expanded fundamentally.

Pointing the way globally: We are rethinking large devices – and with them their setting. An innovation ecosystem for the next generation is already taking shape on the Hamburg research campus. Here, science and industry will work together at PETRA IV to help make society sustainable and fit for the future.

Important to know: The name PETRA IV stands for the upgrade of the X-ray source PETRA III, which has been in operation since 2010. On average, the power of PETRA IV will exceed that of its predecessor by a factor of 500. This means that analyses can be carried out up to 500 times faster. Measurements that currently take over a year could, in future, be completed in a single day.

"PETRA IV will provide ideal analytical capabilities for routinely speeding up the market launch of newly developed drugs." – Christiane Honisch , Head of Diagnostics at the biotech company Evotec

Zoom in.

How PETRA IV works

With today’s X-ray sources, important details at the molecular level remain in the dark. PETRA IV will change this. By focussing the X-rays to an extremely high degree – i.e. producing ultra-narrow X-ray beams – it will be possible to record three-dimensional structural images that are around a hundred times more detailed than those produced by PETRA III. This means that real objects can be depicted in their natural surroundings, from the macro right down to the nanoscale. At the same time, it will be possible to observe the dynamics of the individual elements on time scales ranging from nanoseconds to hours. For many processes, the nanoscale is the key to gaining new insights. PETRA IV will open up a unique window into this world.

New perspectives.

Turning ideas into solutions more quickly

“PETRA IV, the world’s best X-ray microscope, will be an accelerator of innovation. A tool, you might say, that can help make the world a better place! Its service-oriented concept is to move more quickly from research to product.” – Arik Willner , Acting Administrative Director and Chief Technology Officer at DESY  

1. Access: PETRA IV opens up new perspectives for industrial customers and gives them reliable access: the synchrotron-based X-ray source is ideally suited for studying the kind of samples that are relevant for industry and technological progress, so access will be greatly simplified for users involved in practical applications. Research-based companies, start-ups, member institutes of the Fraunhofer Society and clinics will be among the beneficiaries.

2. Data processing: Extracting value-added knowledge from complex data: PETRA IV will generate highly relevant data of unparalleled quality at unprecedented speed. This data will be processed using AI tools, making it available to science and applied users in a form that is easy to interpret (e.g. for AI-based digital twins). On this basis, products and services can be brought to the market more quickly, more securely and more efficiently.

3. Data sovereignty and technological sovereignty: Data is essential for maintaining international competitiveness and technological sovereignty. This means that it is essential for Germany and Europe to be able to use PETRA IV to independently generate data that will secure our technological progress and prevent dependencies. This underlines that PETRA IV is needed for scientific and economic reasons, but also in terms of security policy.

DESY spirit.

How DESY researchers are working towards a better future with PETRA IV

Deeper insights, more experiments, faster analyses – four concrete examples from DESY’s research activities:

Microelectronics

For the first time in the history of X-ray analysis, it will be possible to image an entire semiconductor chip down to the smallest detail within a matter of days. Because PETRA IV technologies will allow the detailed structures of 3D-integrated nanoelectronics to be mapped in their entirety. Today, this would take three years to carry out. And time is a crucial factor for the industry when it comes to quality control, for example.

Electromobility

The ultra-bright X-rays produced by PETRA IV will reveal for the first time how the nano-scale structures inside batteries change during their operation. This is important because, over time, tiny metallic deposits can form on the electrodes, leading to defects. With PETRA IV, such details can be studied under real-life operating conditions and used to design better batteries.

Alternatives to plastics

Cellulose nanofibres obtained from wood have the potential to replace plastics. They are 10,000 times thinner than a human hair and extremely robust. They could be used in textiles, packaging or even solar cells. The problem is that, at the moment, manufacturing them is complicated and time-consuming. PETRA IV will allow cellulose nanofibres to find their way into practical applications more quickly, thanks to automated and standardised measurement and evaluation techniques.

Healthcare

To develop new drugs, researchers need to understand the details of molecular and cellular mechanisms. X-ray light sources are used to analyse thousands of potential candidates in “screening tests”. This takes a lot of time and effort. The imaging techniques provided by PETRA IV will be up to 25 times more sensitive than those available today and will allow experiments to be carried out 500 times more quickly.

“PETRA IV promises new impulses for innovation. The collaboration with pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology start-ups and the European high-tech industry could become a beacon for application-oriented research at Helmholtz and for its transfer.” – Otmar Wiestler, President of the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft / Helmholtz Association

Be curious.

Four more unbeatable arguments for PETRA IV

1. Creating value: An impact study carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI predicts that the research facility PETRA IV could triple the value added in the first ten years, from 1.54 billion euros to up to 7.35 billion euros. If transformative effects (such as data generation) are also taken into consideration, the initial investment could even be increased tenfold!

2. Attracting cutting-edge research: Large research facilities, high-tech laboratories, universities and interdisciplinary institutes – the Hamburg research campus is already a modern location for excellent science and has a vibrant start-up scene. PETRA IV will provide new impetus as the “heart” of the future Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld. And the world’s best source of synchrotron radiation will increasingly attract the international scientific elite. At present, around 3500 researchers conduct experiments at PETRA III every year, and this number will rise to at least 5000 once PETRA IV is launched.

3. Accelerating sustainability: PETRA IV will provide the analytical basis for developing new technologies and resource-efficient materials, from renewable energy concepts to sustainable consumer goods. A unique sustainability concept has also been developed for PETRA IV itself, which will ensure the high energy efficiency of its technical systems and its resource-efficient operation.

4. Cutting-edge technology: PETRA IV will be a world leader for the next 10 to 20 years. DESY is building the accelerator with an innovative design capable of generating X-rays that are more than a hundred times more narrowly focused than those currently produced by PETRA III. Particularly the main components of the facility – the magnets that keep the electrons travelling in a circular orbit inside the storage ring – are entirely new. 

Big numbers.

PETRA IV – Important numbers

2032 First Light

Planned start of PETRA IV operation

7.35 billion euros

Expected added value in the first ten years of operation. This is concluded by an impact study carried out by Fraunhofer ISI

150,000 hours

of research operations per year on more than 30 beamlines

20 percent

of the beam time at PETRA IV is expected to be allocated to industrial research

“With PETRA IV, we are creating optimal conditions for conducting experiments and revolutionising the way people work at Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld – from fundamental research through to industrial research. PETRA IV will make Hamburg even more attractive as a centre of science and innovation for the brightest minds from all over the world.” – Katharina Fegebank , Hamburg Senator for Science, Research, Equal Opportunities, and Districts

New dimensions – new challenges.

What happens next – as quickly as possible

Three questions for PETRA IV project leader Harald Reichert

What are the next steps? In 2024, we are launching the 3-year programme that will prepare the project. This will include additional planning of the infrastructure and the construction of prototypes. Our concept explicitly implements the requirements laid down by the Budget Committee. It will be possible to track precisely when and on what the allocated funds, totalling € 44 million up to 2026, are spent. We are ready!

Concerning crisis resilience: What lessons did the Covid 19 crisis bring to the project, for example? The public realised that years of research are necessary before a product can be swiftly brought to market, research that companies like BioNTech SE carried out here at our synchrotron radiation source, among other places. This implies that such widely deployable large-scale research facilities are a crucial part of the research infrastructure of any highly developed industrialised country. They are used by researchers in physics, biology, chemistry, medicine and materials science, and in the future they will increasingly be used for industrial research too.

Why does everything have to happen so quickly now? Our global competitors, such as the USA, China, and Japan, are years ahead of us in terms of upgrading and building new synchrotron radiation sources. This means that in the future much of the research data generated in industry-relevant sectors will probably no longer be publicly accessible. Individual nations will keep the data to themselves. This would leave research-based industries and applied sciences in Germany out in the cold. So time is more than just money! The only way to make up for our disadvantage in timing is to build the best system. And that’s what we intend to do.

Stay tuned. www.petra4.de

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Published by Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, a Research Centre of the Helmholtz Association Responsible under German press law: Thomas Zoufal, DESY Press & Communications

Concept and implementation: Christina Mänz

Editors and writers: Kristin Hüttmann, Heidrun Hillen, Christina Mänz

Design: Diana von Ilsemann, Cristina Lopez Gonzalez, Carolin Rankin

Picture credits: Science Communication Lab, DESY; Marta Mayer, DESY; Gesine Born, DESY, Helmholtz; Daniel Reinhardt, Senatskanzlei

Contact: petra4-info@desy.de

ABOUT US

DESY is one of the world’s leading particle accelerator centres and conducts research into the structure and function of matter – from the interaction between the smallest elementary particles, the behaviour of novel nanomaterials and vital biomolecules, through to the great mysteries of the universe. The particle accelerators and detectors developed and built by DESY at its sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen are unique research tools. They produce the world’s most powerful X-rays, accelerate particles to record energies and open new windows into the universe.

DESY is a member of the Helmholtz Association, Germany’s largest scientific organisation.

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