The 4th generation light source XFEL (X-ray Free Electron Laser) at PAL (Pohang Accelerator Laboratory) is under construction until 2016, and PAL held a briefing session about that for POSTECH members on Oct. 23.
POSTECH has operated the 3rd gene-ration light source since 1994 and it is the third in the world owning XFEL. The biggest difference between 3rd generation and XFEL is the temporal resolution, which is a picosecond in the 3rd one and a femtosecond in the 4th one. Because of the fast temporal resolution, XFEL is 10 billion times brighter than 3rd one, which  is 100 million times brighter than the sun, and its electron beam energy is stronger than the 3rd one. It generates 10GeV in only 700m, using an electromagnetic wave. With the extremely small pulse, XFEL is expected to make it possible to observe nano-materials and capture instant chemical reactions in one several billionths of a second, faster than a lightning flash.