The discovery of the gluon, the carrier particle of the strong nuclear force, by the TASSO collaboration in 1979 is counted as one of the biggest successes.

Scientists from China, France, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and the USA participated in the first experiments at PETRA alongside many German colleagues.

In 1990, the facility was taken into operation again under the name PETRA II as a pre-accelerator for protons and electrons/positrons for the new particle accelerator HERA.

In March 1995, PETRA II was equipped with undulators to create greater amounts of synchrotron radiation with higher energies, especially in the X-ray part of the spectrum.

The largest, named Max von Laue Hall, has a concrete floor over 300 m long that was poured as a single piece in order to limit vibrations.