The Synchrotron ALBA is a complex of electron accelerators intended to produce synchrotron light with which to visualize the structure and properties of matter, especially on a nanometric scale. Está situado en Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), en el Parc de l’ALBA. It is a public consortium and co-financed equally by the General Administration of the State and the Generalitat de Catalunya. Its construction began in 2006, was inaugurated in 2010 and came into operation with official users in mid-2012.
Main features
ALBA is a third-generation synchrotron light source comparable to the latest ones built in Europe. The accelerator complex is composed of a linear accelerator, which is used to accelerate electrons up to 100 MeV, a propellant synchrotron, where electrons are accelerated up to 3 GeV, and a storage ring where synchrotron light is generated and emitted to the different experimental stations.
Each year the ALBA Synchrotron generates about 6,000 hours of light and serves more than 2,000 researchers, both from the academic community and the industrial sector. ALBA currently has eight operational light lines that are mainly dedicated to biosciences, magnetism and materials science. Currently there are four more lines in the design or construction phase that will enter into operation from 2020.
Some facts and figures
Below is a diagram of the fields of application of the light lines of the ALBA Synchrotron:
