Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany, and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Menlo Park, Calif., have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of advanced x-ray free-electron lasers. The laboratories will share knowledge, equipment and personnel toward the design and construction of the Tera-electron-volt-Energy Superconducting Linear Accelerator Test Facility in Germany and the Sub-Picosecond Pulse Source in the US.

Both institutions are constructing x-ray free-electron lasers, with the US and German facilities scheduled for operation in 2008 and 2011, respectively. The lasers, which will produce x-rays 10 billion times brighter and in pulses 1000 times shorter than current sources, will be used to explore dynamic processes in chemistry, biology and materials science.