Speaker
Description
PETRA III continued as one of the world’s leading synchrotron light sources delivering photon beams to its 25 beamlines at high availability of 97.5 % in 2026. Downtime was primarily caused by external power glitches and aging pre-accelerator infrastructure. A highlight was the successful proof-of-principle test of injecting a laser plasma accelerator (LPA)-generated electron beam directly into the DESY II synchrotron and storing it in PETRA III.
Currently, the facility has entered a long shutdown phase, focusing on critical renovations to guarantee safe and reliable operation until the PETRA IV upgrade. In the injector chain, key tasks are the modernization of the interlock system and the refurbishment of the accumulator ring PIA. In the PETRA storage ring, priorities are the realignment of the wiggler sections and a cable rerouting and renewal campaign.
This talk reviews 2026 performance, addresses challenges, and outlines shutdown tasks, emphasizing their role in saftey and reliability towards PETRA IV.