• Question: What are diamond synchrotons?

    Asked by blahbluenx to Mark on 12 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Mark Basham

      Mark Basham answered on 12 Nov 2011:

      Hi blahbluenx,

      Diamond Light Source (where I work) is a synchrotron. Now Synchrotron are particle accelerators, and there are loads of them all around the world, for example the Large Hadron Colider uses a synchrotron to accelerate the particals which they smash together.

      In Diamonds case, we are using the particles (electrons) not to smash into things but to create really bright x-ray light. This is why we are a light source, and its actually the x-ray light that other scientists come to use.

      In total there are about 70 Synchrotron Light Sources around the world, and they are used for all sorts of science from Medicine to Archeology.

      Hope this has answered your question a little, but if you want to know more, feel free to ask me more questions, or have a look at our website http://www.diamond.ac.uk which has loads of information about how Diamond Light Source works.

      Mark

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