FLASHatDESY,Hamburg,Germanyisthefirstfree-electronlaser(FEL)operatingintheextremeultraviolet(EUV)andsoftx-raywavelengthrange.FLASHisauserfacilityprovidingfemtosecondshortpulseswithanunprecedentedpeakandaveragebrilliance,openingnewscientificopportunitiesinmanydisciplines.Thefirstcallforuserexperimentshasbeenlaunchedin2005.TheFLASHlinearacceleratorisbasedonTESLAsuperconductingtechnology,providingseveralthousandsofphotonpulsespersecondtouserexperiments.Probingfemtosecond-scaledynamicsinatomicandmolecularreactionsusing,forinstance,acombinationofx-rayandopticalpulsesinapumpandprobearrangement,aswellassingle-shotdiffractionimagingofbiologicalobjectsandmolecules,aretypicalexperimentsperformedatthefacility.WegiveanoverviewoftheFLASHfacility,anddescribethebasicprinciplesoftheaccelerator.Recently,FLASHhasbeenextendedbyasecondundulatorbeamline(FLASH2)operatedinparalleltothefirstbeamline,extendingthecapacityofthefacilitybyafactoroftwo.
