The Synchrotron
Diamond generates synchrotron light at wavelengths ranging from X-rays to the far infrared. This is also known as synchrotron radiation and is the electromagnetic radiation emitted by charged particles travelling near the speed of light. It is used in a huge variety of experiments to study the structure and behaviour of many different types of matter.
The particles Diamond uses are electrons travelling at an energy of 3 GeV round a 561.6 m circumference storage ring. The ring is not circular, but is shaped as a twenty-four-sided polygon. As the electrons pass through specially designed magnets at each vertex, their sudden change of direction causes them to emit an exceptionally bright beam of electro-magnetic radiation. This is the synchrotron light used for experiments.
The electrons reach this high energy via a series of pre-accelerator stages before being injected into the 3 GeV storage ring:
- an electron gun - 90keV
- a 100 MeV linear accelerator
- a 100 MeV–3GeV booster synchrotron (158m in circumference).
The Diamond synchrotron is housed in a silver toroidal building of 738m in circumference, covering an area in excess of 43,300 square metres, or the area of over six international Association Football Pitches. This contains the storage ring and a number of beamlines, with the linear accelerator and booster synchrotron housed in the centre of the ring. These beamlines are the experimental stations where the synchrotron light's interaction with matter is used for research purposes. Seven (Phase I) beamlines were available when the Diamond became operational in 2007, with another fifteen (Phase II) being constructed and becoming operation over the period 2007-2012. As of July 2011 there were nineteen in operation, with more under construction. The Government and the Wellcome Trust have now agreed to fund Phase III of Diamond which will increase the number of operational beamlines to 32 in 2017.
The seven beamlines which were available when Diamond first became operational in January 2007 were:
- extreme conditions beamline for studying materials under intense temperatures and pressures (Beamline I15).
- materials and magnetism beamline, set up to probe electronic and magnetic materials at the atomic level (Beamline I16).
- three macromolecular crystallography beamlines, for decoding the structure of complex biological samples, such as proteins (Beamlines I02, I03 and I04).
- microfocus spectroscopy beamline, able to map the chemical make up of complex materials such as moon rocks and geological samples (Beamline I18).
- nanoscience beamline, capable of imaging structures and devices at the scale of a few nanometres (millionths of a millimetre) (Beamline I06).
Phase II of Diamond will increase the number of beamlines to 22, with the 15 new beamlines becoming operational over the period 2007-2012.
Phase III of Diamond provides for the design, procurement, construction and commissioning of an additional 10 beamlines to complement those in Phases I and II of Diamond. They will become operational over the period 2013-2017/18.
Diamond is intended ultimately to host up to ~ forty beamlines, supporting the life, physical and environmental sciences.
Read more about this topic: Diamond Light Source