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The electron synchrotron is a conceptually simple device which was designed to give large amounts of energy to electrons. It is very hard to give large amounts of energy to a particle in a controlled way, so it has to be done in small steps. As the electrons very quickly approach the speed of light, the equipment is likely to become very large. Indeed, an electron accelerator in California is two miles long. To keep it small, the accelerator can be bent around into a circle. One advantage is that the parts are re-used thousands of times as the electrons go round and round. By kicking the electrons forward at just the right instants, they are given more energy. This is made easier by the fact that the electrons are going at a virtually constant speed, the speed of light. To bend the path of the electrons they go through very strong magnets. Other magnets keep the beam tightly focussed.

Actually, a synchrotron is a large machine (about the size of a football field) that accelerates electrons to almost the speed of light. As the electrons are deflected through magnetic fields they create extremely bright light.

Illustration of the Synchrotron machine 

Synchrotron applications

Synchrotron light is advancing research and development in fields as diverse as:

• biosciences (protein crystallography and cell biology)
• medical research (microbiology, disease mechanisms,
• high resolution imaging and cancer radiation therapy)
• environmental sciences (toxicology, atmospheric research, clean combustion and cleaner industrial production technologies)
• agriculture (plant genomics, soil studies, animal and plant imaging)
• minerals exploration (rapid analysis of drill core samples, comprehensive characterisation of ores for ease of mineral processing)
• advanced materials (nanostructured materials, intelligent polymers, ceramics, light metals and alloys, electronic and magnetic materials)
• engineering (imaging of industrial processes in real time, high resolution imaging of cracks and defects in structures, the operation of catalysts in large chemical engineering processes)
• forensics (identification of suspects from extremely small and dilute samples).