1, 2 ,3 SOLEIL
The Synchrotron SOLEIL is one of the most intense light sources in the world.
From 2006 on, it will push back the limits of knowledge. It will also help carry out research to perfect the materials and medicines of tomorrow.
Welcome to the infinitely small. Here, light meets matter.
The ground works of the site started in April 2003 near Paris, at Saint-Aubin on the plateau of Saclay, in the Essonne department.
The installation of the machine will be followed by that of the experimental devices. The objective is to be able to greet the French, European and worldwide communities of scientists by 2006.
The Synchrotron SOLEIL is an electron accelerator which produces a very brilliant light. A electron gun injects electrons into a linear accelerator where they almost reach the speed of light before entering a small accelerator, called a booster synchrotron, which considerably increases their energy. The electron bunches are then stored in a ring 354 meters in circumference. When the trajectory of the electron beam changes, it emits a very thin and very intense pencil of light.
This is the synchrotron radiation.
Bending magnets, called dipoles, are used to change the electrons’ trajectory. The electrons emit their radiation under the influence of the magnetic field in the magnet.
With the “so-called” third-generation synchrotrons, such as SOLEIL, we also use devices called undulators. They consist of two jaws, comprising several small juxtaposed magnets, which oblige the electrons to follow a wiggly path. An increasingly brilliant light is emitted with each undulation.
An important design work mobilized all the teams involved in the project to make SOLEIL one of the most effective synchrotrons worldwide. With its electron beams stabilized at a thousandth of a millimeter; and its outstanding magnetic devices, SOLEIL will satisfy the requirements of the scientists who will use its light.
The synchrotron radiation is collected all around the ring by 24 beamlines. Each line consists of three successive booths: an optical booth (for focussing the radiation), an experimental booth (for scientific measurements), and a working area where researchers collect and analyse the data.
Each beamline uses a different radiation energy, ranging from infrared to X-rays, according to the type of type of experiment.
At the end of the line, where the light comes in contact with the sample to be studied, numerous phenomena occur. The sample, which absorbs part of the light, may, according to its nature, become fluorescent or diffract light.
This is the case of protein crystals which are minute biological objects. Placed in the path of an X-ray beamline, these crystals diffract the X-ray beam.
The diffraction figures thus obtained make it possible to work out, atom by atom, the 3D structure of a complicated molecule. This information will, among other things, help perfect new medicines.
The research work carried out at SOLEIL will cover many other fields, such as physics, chemistry, and the design of new materials, as well as earth sciences and sciences of the universe.
Among the fields under development, those of electronics, nanotechnologies, agro-food, pharmaceutical products, and cosmetology will gather around SOLEIL and its light.
Created in October 2001 under the impetus of the CEA, the CNRS, the Ile de France Region and the Essonne department, SOLEIL is a state of the art research center and a site for scientific exchanges.
Unquestionably multi-disciplinary, SOLEIL is also a ground for students and school children to learn about physics and technologies and it greets hundreds of them every year.
Accessible to researchers, industrialists and teachers, SOLEIL is also open to the public and thereby contributes to the sharing and spreading of knowledge.
