Scientific program of the Advanced Light Source at LBL

Construction of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory is nearing completion, with operation as a US Department of Energy national user facility scheduled to begin in the spring of 1993. Based on a low-emittance, 1.5-GeV electron storage ring with 10 long straight sections available for insertion devices and, initially, 24 bend-magnet ports, the ALS will be a third-generation source of soft x-ray and ultraviolet (collectively, the XUV) synchrotron radiation. Experimental facilities (insertion devices, beamlines, and end stations) will be developed and operated by participating research teams working with the ALS staff. The ability to exploit the high spectral brightness of the ALS was the main criterion for PRT selection. In the XUV spectral regions served by the ALS, a major benefit of high brightness will be the ability to achieve spatial resolution in the neighborhood of 200 angstroms in x-ray microscopy and holography and in spatially resolved spectroscopy. Other beneficiaries of high brightness include very-high-resolution spectroscopy, spectroscopy of dilute species, diffraction from very small samples, and time-resolved spectroscopy and diffraction