SuperB accelerator to gain Free Electron Laser
The SuperB accelerator will soon expand its scientific offerings through a multidisciplinary infrastructure: the Free Electron Laser [FEL]. This will add to the accelerator apparatus – based at Cabibbolab, Italy – which will be completed in the next five years.
The FEL contains a long magnetic “ondulator”, comprising a large number of magnets of alternating polarities, which force electrons into a slalom-type path. This nano-beam of light has the characteristics of typical laser light.
This production of monochromatic radiation in the region of “hard” X-rays will allow the investigation of both organic matter and nanostructures. From this technology, 3D images – with a resolution on the atomic scale – can be obtained.
The machine will be able to vary the wavelength of the emitted light – from infrared to X-rays – by modifying the energy of the electron bunches injected. The possibility to produce ultra-short radiation pulses, on a scale of femto-seconds, makes the FEL unique among synchrotron light sources.
This addition –which will have no adverse effect on the overall performance of SuperB, or the Linac which delivers electrons to it – will serve not only SuperB’s fundamental physics goals, but those of other disciplines such as biological, material science, medical and nanotechnological research.
“This idea is based on the desire to expand Cabibbolab’s scientific offerings,” says Roberto Petronzio, Cabibbolab Director. “The SuperB Linac is designed to inject electrons in the accelerator ring at an energy of 6.7 GeV and it is perfectly compatible with a high-performance FEL, able to produce monochromatic radiation in the region of hard X-rays, thus crossing the needs of biology and nanotechnology studies.”
This initiative is being sponsored by the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare and the University of Rome Tor Vergata.
For more information, please visit the Cabibbolab website.
