The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) is a Dresden-based research laboratory. It conducts research in three of the Helmholtz Association's areas: materials, health, and energy. HZDR is a member of the

Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (german: Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren) is the largest scientific organisation in Germany. It is a union of 18 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centers. ...

History

HZDR is located at the site of the former Central Institute for Nuclear Physics (later: Central Institute for Nuclear Research) in Dresden-Rossendorf, which was founded in 1956 and became the largest nuclear research institute in the GDR. The former research center in Rossendorf was part of the German Academy of Sciences. The German-born British physicist Klaus Fuchs, who took part in the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

and acted as a spy for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, was deputy director until 1974. In 1992, Forschungszentrum Rossendorf was founded at the research site. In 2006 the name changed to "Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf", to emphasize the connection to the research infrastructure in the city of Dresden. In 2011 the center became a member of the

Research programs

HZDR conducts research in the materials, health and energy sectors in Dresden and at four other locations in Germany and one in France. In

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, it operates a

beamline In accelerator physics, a beamline refers to the trajectory of the beam of particles, including the overall construction of the path segment (guide tubes, diagnostic devices) along a specific path of an accelerator facility. This part is either ...

for

radiochemistry Radiochemistry is the chemistry of radioactive materials, where radioactive isotopes of elements are used to study the properties and chemical reactions of non-radioactive isotopes (often within radiochemistry the absence of radioactivity leads t ...

research at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (

ESRF The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is a joint research facility situated in Grenoble, France, supported by 22 countries (13 member countries: France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, ...

). Three of HZDR's five large-scale facilities are available to international scientists. Materials HZDR scientists are investigating the structure and function of new materials in order to better understand, optimize, and use them for specific applications. This includes research on novel

superconducting Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...

and

semiconducting A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...

materials using high

magnetic fields A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...

or ion beams. They are developing detectors for applications in medicine and technology, and are advancing technologies for

particle acceleration In a compressible sound transmission medium - mainly air - air particles get an accelerated motion: the particle acceleration or sound acceleration with the symbol a in metre/second2. In acoustics or physics, acceleration (symbol: ''a'') is def ...

. Health HZDR aims at making progress in early diagnosis and therapy of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. It collaborates with partners from university medicine (National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology, OncoRay, in Dresden). HZDR cancer research concentrates on three major fields: new

radioactive pharmaceuticals Radiopharmacology is radiochemistry applied to medicine and thus the pharmacology of radiopharmaceuticals (medicinal radiocompounds, that is, pharmaceutical drugs that are radioactive). Radiopharmaceuticals are used in the field of nuclear medi ...

for cancer diagnosis and therapy, innovative

medical imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to rev ...

methods used in oncology as well as particle acceleration using new laser technologies for

radiation oncology Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radia ...

. Energy HZDR researchers are looking for economically and ecologically feasible energy solutions. The Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, a joint initiative of HZDR and

TU Bergakademie Freiberg The Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (abbreviation: TU Bergakademie Freiberg, TUBAF) is a public university of technology with currently 3655 students in the city of Freiberg, Saxony, Germany. Its focus is on exploration, mining & e ...

, is targeting new technologies for the exploration, mining, and use of strategically important metals and minerals, e.g. biotechnological methods for metal

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

. Scientists also study energy-intensive processes in industry, like steel casting or in the chemical industry. They are examining nuclear repositories and reactors. And they are contributing to new storage technologies, e.g., developing a liquid metal battery.

Research facilities

HZDR operates multiple research facilities: *

ELBE The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

is a Center for High-Power Radiation Sources and HZDR's largest research facility. It encompasses a superconducting Electron Linear accelerator for beams with high Brilliance and low Emittance (ELBE) and two FEL for the mid and far infrared spectra. In addition, the electron beam delivers multiple other secondary beams (quasi-monochromatic

X-rays An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 Picometre, picometers to 10 Nanometre, nanometers, corresponding to frequency, ...

, polarized

Bremsstrahlung ''Bremsstrahlung'' (), from "to brake" and "radiation"; i.e., "braking radiation" or "deceleration radiation", is electromagnetic radiation produced by the deceleration of a charged particle when deflected by another charged particle, typicall ...

, pulsed neutron beams and pulsed mono-energetic

positron The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. It has an electric charge of +1 '' e'', a spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same mass as an electron. When a positron collides ...

s). * The high-power laser Dresden Laser Acceleration Source (DRACO), a titanium:sapphire laser, achieves a power of 1 PW by means of chirped pulse amplification and is used to accelerate protons and electrons to high energies using laser plasma acceleration. DRACO is part of HZDR's ELBE Center for High-Power Radiation Sources. * With PEnELOPE, another laser system with petawatt energies is under construction. It is a short-pulse laser source in the petawatt range pumped by diode lasers. In particular, it is intended to enable the laser-assisted acceleration of protons for medical applications. The ultimate goal is to replace the large particle accelerators required today for proton beam cancer therapy with much more compact facilities. * The

Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory The Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory (Hochfeld-Magnetlabor Dresden, HLD) in the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) focuses on modern materials research at high magnetic fields. It serves as a research facility for in-house as well ...

(Hochfeld-Magnetlabor Dresden, HLD) is located directly next to ELBE in order to be able to perform combined experiments. Here, particularly strong pulsed magnetic fields are generated. Magnetic fields of up to 100 tesla are available here for materials research. The coils, which were also developed at the site, can generate fields of 95 tesla for fractions of a second (as of May 2017). The coils are cooled to around -200 °C with liquid nitrogen and a current of several tens of thousands of amperes flows through them for a short time. A capacitor bank is used for this purpose (Fig.). At HLD, the fundamental, quantum mechanical properties of magnetism are also investigated and new components such as high-temperature superconductors are developed. HLD is a user facility and partnering in the EU project

European Magnetic Field Laboratory The European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL) gathers the efforts of three laboratories in Germany, France, and the Netherlands: the Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD), the Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses (LNCMI) i ...

(EMFL), a consortium dedicated to unite and coordinate the existing European high magnetic field laboratories. * The Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields (HIBEF) was set up by the HZDR together with the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) at the X-ray laser European XFEL in

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. HIBEF combines the X-ray radiation of the European XFEL with two superlasers, a powerful magnetic coil and a platform for research with diamond stamp cells. In this way, the behavior of matter under the influence of exceptionally high pressures, temperatures and magnetic fields can be studied with unprecedented precision. * The Ion Beam Center (IBC) offers the possibility of selectively bombarding samples with charged atoms of various light and heavy chemical elements coming from different sources. These plasma and ion sources generate ions of all species at energies between 10 eV and 50 MeV. Several machines can accelerate the projectiles to different energies, which allows their effect on the sample to be controlled. Depending on the element and energy, these ion beams are suitable for investigating or selectively modifying samples. These machines are used primarily for the development of tiny electronic components, layered semiconductor systems such as in solar cells, or optical materials such as the transparent but conductive surfaces of modern screens. IBC is funded as a user facility by the EU. * ROBL, the Rossendorf Beamline at the

in Grenoble/ France, comprises two facilities for radiochemical experiments. * The

PET A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence, ...

Center is operated together with

Technische Universität Dresden TU Dresden (for german: Technische Universität Dresden, abbreviated as TUD and often wrongly translated as "Dresden University of Technology") is a public research university, the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, th ...

and University Hospital Dresden. Researchers are developing imaging methods for cancer diagnosis as well as new approaches to cancer treatment. Together, these institutions also operate the National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology – OncoRay. * The thermohydraulic test facility TOPFLOW investigates stationary and transient phenomena in two-phase flows and develops models derived from Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) Codes. * The DREsden Sodium facility for DYNamo and thermohydraulic studies (DRESDYN) is intended as a platform both for large scale experiments related to geo- and astrophysics as well as for experiments related to thermohydraulic and safety aspects of liquid metal batteries and liquid metal fast reactors. Its most ambitious projects are a homogeneous hydromagnetic dynamo driven solely by precession and a large Taylor-Couette type experiment for the combined investigation of the magnetorotational instability and the Tayler instability.

Departments

The HZDR comprises eight institutes: * Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research * Institute Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory * Institute of Fluid Dynamics * Institute of Radiation Physics * Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research * Institute of Radiooncology – OncoRay * Institute of Resource Ecology * Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, together with the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. In addition, there are research departments that cover specific research foci as independent units: CASUS (Center for Advanced Systems Understanding) as an institute in formation and the Department of Theoretical Physics. Scientific-technical support is provided to all institutes and research departments by two central departments: * Central Department Research Technology, for the development and setup of research facilities and experiments. * Central Department Information Services and Computing, for the informatics infrastructure of all HZDR sites.

Collaborations

The HZDR is nationally and internationally connected to other institutions and organised in various research alliances. International collaborations * European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESFR) * European XFEL * WHELMI Lab (Weizmann-Helmholtz Laboratory for Laser Matter Interaction) * LEAPS Initiative (League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources)LEAPS
/ref> * ERF AISBL (Association of European-level Research Infrastructure Facilities)ERF AISBL
/ref> * ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) * European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL) * EIT RawMaterials * INFACT (Innovative, Non-Invasive and Fully Acceptable Exploration Technologies) * Universität Breslau * ARIEL (Accelerator and Research reactor Infrastructures for Education and Learning) *

Monash University Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...

Melbourne * Lightsources.org, a platform of the world-wide light source community lightsources.org
/ref> * RADIATE (Research And Development with Ion Beams – Advancing Technology in Europe)RADIATE
/ref> * FineFuture (Resource optimization as a common challenge) FineFuture
/ref> * Helmholtz-SESAME Beamline (HESEB) National collaborations * DRESDEN-concept (Dresden Research and Education Synergies for the Development of Excellence and Novelty)DRESDEN-concept
/ref> *

TU Dresden TU Dresden (for german: Technische Universität Dresden, abbreviated as TUD and often wrongly translated as "Dresden University of Technology") is a public research university, the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, th ...

* TU Chemnitz * German Working Group for Repository Research / Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft Endlagerforschung * Competence Pool for Radiation Research / Kompetenzverbund Strahlenforschung * Competence Pool East for Nuclear Technology / Kompetenzverbund Ost für Kerntechnik * Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus Dresden * OncoRay – Zentrum für Strahlenforschung in der Onkologie * NCT/UCC – National Center for Tumor Diseases * DKTK – German Cancer Consortium * ROTOP Pharmaka GmbH *

Universität Rostock The University of Rostock (german: link=no, Universität Rostock) is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continen ...

Staff and research sites

The HZDR employs about 1,400 staff, working at six research sites.Facts and Data about the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf
/ref> The headquarters is in Dresden.

Technology transfer

The HZDR Innovation GmbH corporation offers industrial services using HZDR's know-how and infrastructures in ion implantation. This technology is applied for doping material surfaces with foreign atoms or to produce defects in semiconductors. It is also used to create materials with targeted features such as oxidation resistance, which is important for aviation or automotive lightweight construction, or

biocompatibility Biocompatibility is related to the behavior of biomaterials in various contexts. The term refers to the ability of a material to perform with an appropriate host response in a specific situation. The ambiguity of the term reflects the ongoing de ...

for

medical implants An implant is a medical device manufactured to replace a missing biological structure, support a damaged biological structure, or enhance an existing biological structure. Medical implants are man-made devices, in contrast to a transplant, whi ...

. Products of HZDR Innovation that have already been commercialized include a grid sensor and measuring instruments for analyzing multiphase flows.

Students and young scientists

Roughly 170 doctoral students work there. The HZDR installed junior research groups to promote excellent young scientists, the topics of which as of 2021 are: * Physical chemistry of biomolecular condensates * Bubbles go with the turbulent flows * Terahertz-driven dynamics at surfaces and interfaces * Artificial Intelligence for the future photon science * Advanced modelling of multiphase flows * Nano Safety * BioKollekt * Application-oriented laser particle acceleration Another junior research group receives special funding from the Helmholtz Association: * Ultrafast X-ray Methods for Laboratory Astrophysics In addition, there is a DFG-funded junior research group in the Emmy Noether Program: * Towards Fluid Dynamics of Foam and Froth Another group receives funding from the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

(ERC): * TOP: Towards the Bottom of the Periodic Table HZDR operates an International Helmholtz Research School for Nanoelectronic Networks (NANONET) as well as a Summer Student Program.

Notes

{{Authority control Multidisciplinary research institutes Physics institutes Medical research institutes in Germany Particle physics facilities Nuclear research institutes Science and technology in East Germany Medical and health organisations based in Saxony