The LUX beam line is aimed as a user beam line providing X-ray pulses with wavelengths ranging between 0.4 to 5 nm and roughly 10⁶ photons for a few fs long pulses. The maximum repetition rate is 10 Hz during hour-long runs. The LUX X-ray pulse wavelengths cover the water window region, making the beam line very interesting for studying biological samples because of the high protein to water contrast.

The LUX beam line will be driven by the PW-class L3 laser, which will also be used to drive two auxiliary beams providing a few mJ 30 fs pulses and 1 mJ 5 fs pulse. The LUX X-ray pulse and auxiliary pulses will be inherently synchronized with a precision of better than 10 fs, which will enable a large range of pump-and-probe experiments.

Users are expected to have access to either one of the experimental end-stations provided by ELI Beamlines and may bring their own complete experimental equipment.

The LUX beam line has been developed in collaboration of University of Hamburg and ELI-Beamlines. The commissioning of the beam line at the ELI-Beamlines site in Dolní Břežany will begin in January 2017, and the initial users are expected in first half of 2018.