180 likes | 302 Views
What is it?. What is a synchrotron? A particle accelerator that produces very bright beams of light: infrared, visible, UV and X-rays. The Australia Synchrotron in Melbourne Circumference = 216 m Cost = $206 million.
E N D
What is it? What is a synchrotron? A particle accelerator that produces very bright beams of light: infrared, visible, UV and X-rays The Australia Synchrotron in Melbourne Circumference = 216 m Cost = $206 million European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France one of world’s largest at ~2km circumference
How does it work? What does it look like inside? Bending magnet approx 7.5 tonnes Storage ring ANKA, Germany
How does it work? Creating the light When charged particles such as electrons accelerate they emit electromagnetic waves.
How does it work? Electrons are generated here and initially accelerated in the linear accelerator (LINAC)
How does it work? They then pass into the inner booster ring where they are accelerated to 99.9997% of the speed of light.
How does it work? From the booster ring they are transferred into the storage ring.
How does it work? Finally they reach the storage ring.
How does it work? Types of light sources Bending magnet - sweeping searchlight At each deflection of the electron path a beam of radiation is produced. Insertion devices - produce higher intensity Wiggler Beams emitted at each pole reinforce each other and appear as a broad beam of incoherent light. Undulator Produces a very narrow beam of coherent light, amplified by up to 104
Why is it special? Why is wavelength important? sample sample Visible light X-rays To penetrate a sample, you need a wavelength of similar, or smaller magnitude.
Properties Properties of synchrotron light 1. Brilliant - many orders of magnitude brighter than conventional sources, enabling quick experiments on small samples.
Properties 2. Continuous spectrum- from infrared to hard X-rays
Summary Why does Australia need a $206 million synchrotron? The 1200+ scientists who use the Australian synchrotron will make many discoveries. The importance of many of these discoveries will probably only become apparent many years into the future. When Faraday discovered a method to generate electricity with magnets he was asked ‘what use does it have’, to which he responded, ‘what use is a new born baby?’ This is true of many of the discoveries that will be made with synchrotrons: their importance will only be apparent many years into the future. Photo: courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives
Further reading and resources • An excellent animation showing the production of x-rays in a synchrotron can be viewed at • www.isa.au.dk/animations/Finalmovie/astrid_ total_ v2.mov • The State Government of Victoria has further background material • www.synchrotron.vic.gov.au • The Canadian Synchrotron website has further resources • www.lightsource.ca • UWA scientist Dr Peter Hammond has a site on synchrotrons that can be viewed at http://internal.physics.uwa.edu.au/~hammond/SyncRes/