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The Compact Light Source: a Miniature Synchrotron Light Source for the Home LabDr. Ronald RuthLyncean Technologies, Inc.July 19, 11:00am The Compact Light Source (from the Lycean Technology Webpage) The Compact Light Source (CLS) is a breakthrough technology that offers the possibility of a "synchrotron beamline" for home laboratory applications. This tunable, tabletop X-ray source can be used in much the same way as a typical X-ray beamline at a large facility; but it is small enough to bring state-of-the-art methods of macromolecular crystallography directly into an experimenter's local laboratory. The Compact Light Source builds on US investment in large synchrotrons, but with a new idea that allows the source to be very compact. Existing synchrotron light sources employ multi-GeV electron beams that are stored in large rings of magnets to generate intense, bright, 1Å wavelength radiation. The CLS employs the marriage of an electron beam and laser beam to accomplish the same effect. The shift from periodic magnets used in a typical synchrotron light source, to the laser beam used in the CLS, allows a reduction of energy and scale by a factor 200. The Compact Light Source is so small that it easily fits within a small room and its electron storage ring fits within the footprint of a large desk. The Compact Light Source, as a next-generation X-ray source, directly addresses the increasing demand for high-throughput protein crystallography. Structural biologists can gain a new level of productivity by having local, on-demand access of synchrotron light. However, the CLS also offers access to high-quality X-ray beams to a broader group of scientists across many disciplines. Perhaps the most exciting new applications of the CLS are in health care. New biological imaging techniques that provide exquisitely detailed images of soft tissue are being developed at synchrotron facilities today. The CLS matches key aspects of the X-ray quality of these beamlines, but at cost and scale that makes clinical applications of these powerful techniques practical. As we begin this century in the post-genomic world, we believe that the Compact Light Source will ultimately improve our nation's health and impact millions of individual lives through better understanding of disease, more effective drug development, and by enabling clinical applications of emerging new techniques for biological imaging. About the Speaker Ronald Ruth, Ph.D. is President and Chief Scientist of Lyncean Technologies, Inc. He is on a part-time leave of absence from Stanford University where he leads the Accelerator Research Department-A at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). This department, a group of about 40 physicists and engineers, is known worldwide for its expertise in particle beam physics and accelerator technology. Professor Ruth is an expert in all aspects of particle accelerators and the author of numerous publications about particle beam physics and accelerator technology. His research at SLAC concerns the development of new concepts for particle acceleration and beam manipulation for application to high-energy accelerators. During the mid 90's he led the development of the Next Linear Collider Test Accelerator, a test bed for x-band acceleration technology for future high energy accelerators. The concept for the Compact Light Source is a spin off from basic research performed by Professor Ruth and Dr. Zhirong Huang into a new electron damping mechanism called radiative laser cooling. Professor Ruth has been on review committees for many national laboratories. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and is currently chair of the Division of Physics of Beams of the APS. More information Interaction Point Articles: |
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