DELSY project: status and development

The DELSY (Dubna Electron Synchrotron) project is under development at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research [Arkhipov et al. (2001). Nucl. Instrum. Methods, A467, 57–62; Arkhipov et al. (2001). Nucl. Instrum. Methods, A470, 1–6; Titkova et al. (2000). Proceedings of the Seventh European Particle Accelerator Conference, pp. 702–704]. It is based on an acceleration facility donated to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research by the Institute for Nuclear and High Energy Physics (NIKHEF, Amsterdam). The NIKHEF accelerator facility consists of the linear electron accelerator MEA, which has an electron energy of 700 MeV, and the electron storage ring AmPS, with a maximum energy of 900 MeV and a beam current of 200 mA. There are three phases to the construction of the DELSY facility. Phase I will be accomplished with the construction of a complex of free-electron lasers covering continuously the spectrum from the far infrared down to the ultraviolet (∼150 nm). Phase II will be accomplished with the commissioning of the storage ring DELSY. Complete commissioning of the DELSY project will take place after finishing Phase III, the construction of an X-ray free-electron laser. This phase is considered as the ultimate goal of the project; it is currently under development and is not described in this paper.