Bjørn H. Wiik-Prize for Holger Schlarb

 

The accelerator physicist Dr. Holger Schlarb was awarded the Bjørn H. Wiik-Preis 2007. He was honoured for his outstanding developments in diagnostics and synchronization of the free-electron lasers FLASH and XFEL.

Already in his doctoral thesis, Holger Schlarb made decisive contributions for the commissioning and optimisation of DESY’s first free-electron laser at the TESLA Test Facility TTF, and he implemented a collimator system which protects the highly sensitive undulators from radiation damages. This was a significant basis for FEL operation with high beam currents.

Afterwards – including one year at SLAC - he dedicated himself to high-resolution beam diagnosis and the synchronisation of FEL pulses at shortest time scales. He was one of the first to discover that average high-frequency synchronisation systems in long linear accelerators do not have sufficient time accuracy and have to be replaced by laser optical systems.

Today, Holger Schlarb is the executive head of the work package “Special Diagnostics” for the European XFEL. Parallel to this he is substantially participating in the operation and optimisation of FLASH.