Large format pnCCDs as imaging detectors for X-ray free-electron-lasers

New generation synchrotron light sources, the X-ray free electron lasers, require a two dimensional focal plane instrumentation to perform X-ray imaging from below 100eV up to 25keV. The instruments have to face the accelerator bunch structure and energy bandwidth which is different for existing (FLASH, Hamburg) and future photon sources (LCLS, SCSS and XFEL). Within the frame of the Center for Free Electron Laser Science (CFEL), a joint effort of the Max-Planck Society, DESY and the University of Hamburg, the MPI semiconductor laboratory is developing and producing large area X-ray CCD detectors with a format of nearly 60cm² image area. They show outstanding characteristics: a high readout speed due to a complete parallel signal processing, high and homogeneous quantum efficiency, low signal noise, radiation hardness and a high pixel charge handling capacitance. We will present measurement results which demonstrate the X-ray spectroscopic and imaging capabilities of the devices. We will also report on the concept and the anticipated properties of the full, large scale system. The implementation of the detector into an experimental chamber to perform measurements, e.g. of macromolecules in order to determine their structure at atomic resolutions, will be shown.