Allan, Jordan, 12 January 2017. A beam circulated for the first time in the pioneering SESAME synchrotron at 18:12 (UTC+3) yesterday. The next step will be to store the beam.
This is an important milestone on the way to research getting underway at the first light-source laboratory in the Middle East. SESAME was established under the auspices of UNESCO before becoming a fully independent intergovernmental organisation in its own right in 2004.
The 28th Council meeting of SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) was held on 30-31 May 2016, in Brussels at the Berlaymont building of the European Commission. SESAME is a 3rd generation light source which will use a 2.5 GeV synchrotron ring under construction in Allan, Jordan.
Report on the 26th SESAME Council meeting held on 26-27 May 2015 and hosted by UNESCO in Paris. In order for commissioning to start in mid-2016, and for the first stage of Phase 1 to be completed in 2017, some additional capital funding is still needed. Egypt will join Iran, Israel, Jordan, and Turkey (which are each providing $5 million) in making a voluntary contribution, which will partly fill the gap.
The Council was updated on progress in fabricating the magnets for the main storage ring, which is being managed by CERN, in collaboration with SESAME, using funds provided by the European Union…
On 3 September 2014, the Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East [SESAME] booster came into full operation. The Booster Synchrotron – the second machine in the SESAME acceleration chain – is now accelerating electrons to 800 MeV.
Reaching this energy is a milestone for SESAME, which aims to bring scientists from the region together through international scientific cooperation…
The CALIPSO project, which runs from June 2012 to May 2015, will contribute to the effective exploitation of European synchrotrons and free electron lasers. CALIPSO (Coordinated Access to Light sources to Promote Standards and Optimisation) includes 20 partners forming one of the largest Research Networks in the world.
e-EPS interviewed M. Bertolo, CALIPSO project manager and his assistant C. Blasetti.
Which challenges are addressed by CALIPSO?
A new synchrotron radiation [SR] facility, ASTRID2, is being commissioned at Aarhus University. Housed in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, ASTRID2 replaces the current ASTRID source and is designed as a very high brightness source of SR in the range of photon energy of a few eV up to 1 keV. ASTRID2 is a partner in the new EU Transnational Access-program CALIPSO, filling an important niche in SR for European science.
ASTRID2 runs at 580 MeV and will be world-leading in the low photon energy range at <100 eV, with small source…