Alba Synchrotron light source
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The Alba Syncrotron light source is the single most important scientific facility in south-west Europe.
Ramon Pascual, President of the CELLS Executive Committee.
The facility consists of a linear accelerator and a synchrotron which accelerate electrons to near-light speeds, at an energy of 3 GeV. The electrons are then injected into a 270-metre perimeter storage ring, optimised to produce a continuum of long-wave electromagnetic radiation, from infrared light to X-rays. Its characteristics as a third-generation light source, with most of the light coming from insertion devices (oscillators and undulators), put it on a par with new installations in Germany, Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom.
The accelerator complex and experimental stations were optimised for use in the following techniques:
- Bill of materials with X-ray diffraction
- Cryogenic tomography and X-ray spectroscopy
- X-ray diffraction of non-crystalline materials
- Protein crystallography
- X-ray absorption spectroscopy
- Magnetic modelling at nanometric scale by photoemission electron microscopy
- Surface chemistry through photoemission at near-ambient pressure
- Magnetism, surface magnetism and magnetic structure