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VISITING THE ALBA SYNCHROTRON, Cerdanyola del Valls

On Wednesday, 20th July, I visited with great pleasure, with other fellows from the Association of Physicists from Spain, the Alba Synchrotron. ALBA was inaugurated in March of the past year and is now to start routine operations. South of a line joining Paris with Trieste ALBA is the only national Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Europe. The Alba Complex consists of three buildings: the Technical Building, the Main Hall and the Office/Personnel wing. The latter confers to the complex its characteristic snail shape.

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Entrance to main building The synchrotron is an electron accelerator, destined to produce extremely brilliant beams of light over a very wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The unique characteristics of this light allow to determine with huge precision the atomic structure and properties of matter. It has wide applications in Biology (e.g. in study of biological structures, as proteins and in analysis of viruses and bacteria), in Biotechnology, in health and pharmaceuticals, in nanotechnology (nanometric designs, e.g. chips), in Physics (e.g. determination of the electronic structure of fluids and solids), in Chemistry (e.g. improvement of processes of catalysis in chemical reactions), in Surface Science, in Environmental Science (e.g. detection and location of trace contaminants in soils and plants), in Palaeontology (e.g. non-destructive analysis of fossils) and also in Cosmetics. Our guide, Jordi Marcos, about two and half hours, lead us throughout the complex, giving us information about general data and technical data of some facilities. In this synchrotron, electrons are produced from a cathode at 1000 degrees Celsius and are accelerated in a linear accelerator (LINAC), 10 meters in length, by high frequency electric fields and further accelerated in a circular Booster synchrotron, 249,6 m of perimeter (BOOSTER RING), and finally, once the electrons reach the nominal working energy they are injected into a third accelerator called STORAGE RING, 268,8 m of perimeter, and are stored for many hours.

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Linac Scheme, Booster Ring and Storage Ring LINAC: electrons are produced and accelerated reaching speeds of 0,99987 c (c= speed of light), equivalent to an energy of 100 MeV (100 millions electronvolts) BOOSTER RING: electrons are accelerated reaching speeds of 0,99999998 c, equivalent to an energy of 3 GeV in 0,160 seconds, thrice. STORAGE RING: electrons are stored to a current of 400 mA. Synchrotron Light is generated in Insertion Devices and in dipolar magnets. Insertion Devices are sophisticated systems that deliver tailor made light with extremely high brilliance. FRONT ENDS: these devices extract Synchrotron Light from ring and separate the vacuum systems from ring and beamlines.

The electrons circulating in the Storage Ring are subjected to magnetic forces, by different magnets, that curve their trajectory, losing energy in the form of intense beams of light with wavelengths ranging from the infrared to the X-ray region.

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General view inside the tunnel

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Storage Ring

Magnet of Storage Ring

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RF cavity, to boost electrons In all the process, it is very important to get a vacuum environment to avoid interactions between electrons and residual gas molecules, and to have a protection system for residual X-rays. Each beamline is designed for use with a specific technique for a specific type of research, so, Synchrotron Light is sent to experimental stations where scientists exploit it for their research.

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Storage Ring (left) and Beamline device (right)

Tube where photons are guided (Synchrotron radiation). Photons are produced tangentially to trajectory of electrons.

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ALBA has a total capacity to host at least 33 beamlines, 7 of which are built within the initial capital Project. Between beamlines we can distinguish two groups: the first one includes soft-energy photons (from the visible to soft X-ray region) and in the second we have hard X-rays. For example, the first are used in photoemission electron microscopy or to study magnetic materials, and the second in crystalline and non crystalline diffraction experiments (e.g. proteins).

MISTRAL, soft X-ray microscopy beamline for biological applications (for example, to provide insight into the internal structure of whole cells).

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XALOC, macromolecular crystallography beamline, to study structures of macromolecules and complexes.

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Now we have to optimize electron orbits said Jordi. In the future there are a second-phase beamline proposals, concretely eight more. ALBA Synchrotron is a research hub for University departments and scientific centers; ALBA is expected to initially host more than 1000 researchers per year from both the public and the industrial sectors. ALBA will be open to academic, industrial research from abroad and technological innovation.

End of the visit For more information: www.cells.es Teresa Versyp, 21th July 2011