BESSY II at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB)

BESSY II, in the Berlin-Adlershof science park, is a soft-to-tender X-ray synchrotron operated by Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and built around the study of energy materials — the batteries, catalysts and solar absorbers at the heart of the clean-energy transition.

BESSY II produces bright, finely tunable soft and tender X-rays that are ideal for watching chemistry as it happens. The facility specialises in operando and in situ experiments, in which a sample — a working battery cell, a catalyst under reaction conditions, a device exposed to light — is studied while it is actually operating, rather than picked apart afterwards. Researchers from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and visiting groups worldwide use these capabilities to develop new materials for renewable energy conversion, storage and green hydrogen.

At a glanceFacility profile

Location

Berlin-Adlershof, Germany

Operator

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB)

Type

Third-generation synchrotron, optimised for soft-to-tender X-rays

Energy

1.7 GeV

Beam current

300 mA

Beamlines

46 in operation

Website

helmholtz-berlin.de

The scienceWhat researchers do here

Soft X-rays are exquisitely sensitive to the behaviour of electrons, which makes BESSY II a natural home for energy research: tracking how lithium moves through a battery electrode, how a catalyst grips and releases a molecule, or how a solar absorber converts light into charge. HZB pairs these synchrotron methods with well-equipped sample environments and laboratory techniques, and increasingly with data-driven and machine-learning approaches that speed the path from measurement to working device.

Studying materials while they work — a battery charging, a catalyst reacting — rather than only before and after.