The Stanford synchrotron radiation laboratory — 20 years of synchrotron light

Abstract

The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) is now operating as a fully dedicated light source with low emittance electron optics, delivering high brightness photon beams to 25 experimental stations six to seven months per year. On October 1, 1993 SSRL became a Division of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, rather than an Independent Laboratory of Stanford University, so that high-energy physics and synchrotron radiation now function under a single DOE contract. The SSRL division of SLAC has responsibility for operating, maintaining and improving the SPEAR accelerator complex, which includes the storage ring and a 3 GeV injector. SSRL has thirteen X-ray stations and twelve VUV/soft X-ray stations serving its 600 users. Recently opened to users is a new spherical grating monochromator (SGM) and a multiundulator beam line. Circularly-polarized X-ray beam capabilities are being exploited on a second SGM line. New YB 66 crystals installed in a vacuum double-crystal monochromator line have sparked new interest for Al and Mg edge studies. One of the most heavily-subscribed stations is the rotation camera, which has been recently enhanced with a MAR imaging plate detector system for protein crystallography on a multipole wiggler. Under construction is a new wiggler-based structural molecular biology beam line with experimental stations for crystallography, small-angle scattering and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Plans for new developments include wiggler beam lines and associated facilities specialized for environmental research and materials processing.