China’s HALF facility receives electron beam for the first time — South China Morning Post
In China’s Anhui province, the Hefei Advanced Light Facility (HALF) received an electron beam for the first time on September 20. This is a stage in the construction of a fourth-generation light source for studying the structure of matter at the atomic level, the South China Morning Post reports.
Electron bunches produced by a new electron gun were accelerated in a 192-metre-long linear accelerator to an energy of 2.2 billion electronvolts. Project scientist He Zhigang called the successful generation of the beam an important step toward the facility’s final goal. According to him, the beam’s quality, stability and reliability will significantly affect experiments at HALF.
X-ray radiation
HALF is expected to generate ultra-bright X-ray radiation when high-speed electrons change direction in magnetic fields. Fourth-generation light sources control the electron beam more precisely, making it thinner and more concentrated, which makes it possible to produce brighter X-ray beams.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
According to the University of Science and Technology of China, HALF’s design brightness and stability indicators are the highest in the world. The facility’s X-ray radiation is expected to be more than 100 times brighter and more coherent than that of third-generation sources. Project leader Feng Donglai also stated that all key equipment for the linear accelerator was manufactured in China.
Research stations
The facility will have up to 35 experimental stations available to scientists from different countries. They are planned to be used for research into high-temperature superconductivity, batteries for new energy, advanced materials and life sciences, including Alzheimer’s disease.
The first ten stations will include a platform for extreme ultraviolet lithography, a key technology for manufacturing advanced semiconductors. Other stations will specialise in nanodevices. Construction of HALF began in 2023, and the project is planned to be completed in 2028. Together with the Beijing High Energy Photon Source and the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, HALF is expected to become part of China’s system of advanced light sources.
