The electron accelerator facility ELBE at Rossendorf/Dresden and its applications

At the Research Center Rossendorf near Dresden a superconducting electron accelerator is under construction and will start its operation in the course of this year. The electron beam with an energy of 20 (later up to 40) MeV is intended to provide the "source" for several types of secondary radiation: (1) gamma photons for nuclear spectroscopy, (2) X-rays for studies of cell damage, (3) neutrons for fusion-related research, (4) positrons for applications mostly in solid state physics, and finally (5) intense, coherent infrared radiation by means of two free-electron lasers, which will span the wavelength range between 5 and 150 microns. While giving a brief overview about all the above topics, I will concentrate on the free-electron lasers and the solid state spectroscopy we are planning to use them for. A focus will be time resolved studies of semiconductor quantum structures. It is intended to develop ELBE into a user facility, open to users worldwide, but of course in particular to researchers in central Europe.