China joins world-class synchrotron club

摘要

The Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) officially opened its doors last week to a queue of scientists waiting hungrily for beamline time. The 1.2-billion renminbi (US$176-million) light source is Chinas biggest investment in a single science facility to date, says Zhao Zhentang, an accelerator physicist and the facility's deputy director. rnThe synchrotron radiation is generated as magnets bend an electron beam around the main ring's 432-metre circumference. "It's like mud coming off a spinning tyre," says Herman Winick, assistant director emeritus of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory in California, and chair of the committee of 30 international and 4 Chinese scientists who last week gave the go-ahead to approve the facility's first seven beamlines.