The ESRF Upgrade science case

New world-class light sources continue to come on line, with Petra-III in Germany being the latest addition, inaugurated on 16 November 2009. This also holds true for the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region, notably China. Free-electron lasers for hard X-rays complement new and existing synchrotrons, today in the U.S. and soon also in Europe and Japan.

X-rays are ideally suited for studying matter at the atomic length- and time-scales. Scientists use brilliant beams of X-ray photons for experiments in physics, chemistry, health and life sciences, material sciences, environment, industrial research and increasingly cultural heritage.

Demand for high-brilliance X-ray beams is continually growing, with user communities requiring ever increasing levels of performance along with ease of access to and use of the light sources. At the ESRF, the user communities are specifically demanding smaller nanosized beams with higher brilliance, improved facilities on the beamlines and not least more beamtime.

The ESRF Upgrade Programme is serving this demand with the additional objective to maintain the ESRF's role as the leading European provider of hard X-ray light.

The Upgrade focuses on five core areas of applied and fundamental research:

• Nanoscience and nanotechnology
• Pump-probe experiments and time-resolved diffraction
• Science at extreme conditions
• Structural and functional biology and soft matter
• X-ray imaging

To make this new science possible, technological and infrastructure developments are necessary in four areas:

• World-class beamline portfolio
• New instrumentation and technologies
• Improved accelerator and source
• More space for science

Europe has been a leader in X-ray science since the properties of synchrotron light were examined in detail at DESY in Germany in the 1960s. Twenty years ago, Europe built the ESRF, the world’s first “third-generation” synchrotron radiation source. Today, four large, high-energy light sources (ESRF, APS, SPring-8 and Petra-III) exist in the world, all serving large user communities of many thousand scientists.

In 2009, the ESRF again received 2000 experiment proposals whilst available capacity allowed to accommodate only about 900. External experts select the best proposals for allocation of beam time. The 900 selected experiments per year involve some 6000 user visits to the ESRF to conduct them, and they result in 1600 scientific publication in peer-reviewed journals.

The ESRF always stimulates new science and scientific collaborations, leading to discoveries that industry can capitalise on. Industry also has direct access, against payment, to X-ray light for research. Joint projects and partnerships with leading universities, research institutes and industry have a long-standing tradition at the ESRF and are an integral part of the Upgrade.

What makes a scientist choose a light source? The answer is simple: beamlines which allow cutting edge science. The ESRF Upgrade Programme is therefore built around a portfolio of world-class beamlines. And for many of these beamlines, the ESRF will continue to offer scientists capabilities which are unique in Europe, possibly even in the world.

Next page: World-class beamline portfolio