Mission (Im-)possible: The Decoding of Matter

Particle accelerators are the tool of choice for exploring the mysteries of the quantum universe and looking into the molecular engine room of materials and biological structures. In the last 5 decades, many of nature's great mysteries have been solved with the most modern and sophisticated ring facilities, from the discovery of the smallest constituents of matter to the deciphering of the molecular structure of the ribosome.

In my lecture I will concentrate on accelerator-based light sources (with a focus on DESY). Here we will see novel particle accelerators in the next 10-15 years: (a) ring facilities with a revolutionary electron lattice exceeding the brilliance of previous synchrotron radiation sources by one hundred, (b) linear accelerators for X-ray laser sources which will routinely enable real-time imaging of molecular structures and processes in the femtosecond range, and disruptive developments in plasma accelerators with completely new fields of application, especially in medical technology.