SYNCHROTRON RADIATION Sayuri, LVI
In our life, we are supported by a wide variety of things from vehicles to oxygen that we inhale to make our life comfortable. All these matters are made of nano-scale particles that we cannot see. However, to develop our knowledge and solve problems that we still face, whether it is environmental impacts or social impacts, researchers are always seeking a new solution and discovery. During my summer holiday, I had a wonderful opportunity to visit one of the most famous synchrotron radiation facilities, Spring-8 in Japan. Synchrotron radiation facility is one of the crucial scientific facilities for all sorts of research and experiments. It offers noticeable advantages to expand our vision. So, what is synchrotron radiation and why are synchrotron radiation facilities important? In the simplest form, at a synchrotron radiation facility a very intense X-ray, also known as synchrotron radiation and synchrotron light, is produced to penetrate materials and reveal the inner structure of matter down to the level of atoms. The most famous synchrotron radiation facilities, ESRF (shared with European countries, located in France), SPS (USA), and Spring-8 (Japan) are the only ones that the electrons reach above 6GeV. These facilities are often referred to as ‘hard or large-scale X-ray third-generation synchrotron radiation facilities’. In Spring-8, which was founded last out of three, the electrons are accelerated up to nearly the speed of light (3 x 10^8) with a maximum of 8 giga electron volt on electrons which is the highest in the whole world now. Therefore, it is named Spring- ‘8’. Anything between 1 and 5 GeV is classified as a 3GeV-third generation synchrotron radiation facility. This includes Diamond Light Source situated in Rutherford, UK.
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