The Canadian Light Source (CLS) (french: link=no, Centre canadien de rayonnement synchrotron – CCRS) is Canada's national
synchrotron light source
A synchrotron light source is a source of electromagnetic radiation (EM) usually produced by a storage ring, for scientific and technical purposes. First observed in synchrotrons, synchrotron light is now produced by storage rings and other ...
facility, located on the grounds of the
University of Saskatchewan
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
in
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as t ...
, Canada.
The CLS has a third-generation 2.9
GeV GEV may refer to:
* ''G.E.V.'' (board game), a tabletop game by Steve Jackson Games
* Ashe County Airport, in North Carolina, United States
* Gällivare Lapland Airport, in Sweden
* Generalized extreme value distribution
* Gev Sella, Israeli-Sou ...
storage ring, and the building occupies a footprint the size of a
Canadian football
Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...
field.
It opened in 2004 after a 30-year campaign by the Canadian scientific community to establish a
synchrotron radiation facility in Canada.
It has expanded both its complement of
beamline
In accelerator physics, a beamline refers to the trajectory of the beam of particles, including the overall construction of the path segment (guide tubes, diagnostic devices) along a specific path of an accelerator facility. This part is either ...
s and its building in two phases since opening. As a national synchrotron facility
with over 1000 individual users, it hosts scientists from all regions of Canada and around 20 other countries.
Research at the CLS has ranged from viruses
to superconductors
to dinosaurs,
and it has also been noted for its industrial science
and its high school education programs.
History
The road to the CLS: 1972–1999
Canadian interest in
synchrotron radiation dates from 1972, when Bill McGowan of the
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...
(UWO) organised a workshop on its uses. At that time there were no users of synchrotron radiation in Canada. In 1973 McGowan submitted an unsuccessful proposal to the
National Research Council National Research Council may refer to:
* National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development
* National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome
* National Research Council (United States), part of ...
(NRC) for a feasibility study on a possible synchrotron lightsource in Canada. In 1975 a proposal to build a dedicated synchrotron lightsource in Canada was submitted to NRC. This was also unsuccessful. In 1977
Mike Bancroft, also of UWO, submitted a proposal to NRC to build a Canadian
beamline
In accelerator physics, a beamline refers to the trajectory of the beam of particles, including the overall construction of the path segment (guide tubes, diagnostic devices) along a specific path of an accelerator facility. This part is either ...
, as the
Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility (CSRF), at the existing
Synchrotron Radiation Center at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...
, USA, and in 1978 newly created
NSERC
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada, CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering rese ...
awarded capital funding. CSRF, owned and operated by NRC, grew from the initial beamline to a total of three by 1998.
A further push towards a Canadian synchrotron light source started in 1990 with formation of the Canadian Institute for Synchrotron Radiation (CISR), initiated by Bruce Bigham of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (
AECL
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) is a Canadian federal Crown corporation and Canada's largest nuclear science and technology laboratory. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in the 1950s, and in October 2011 licensed this ...
). AECL and
TRIUMF
TRIUMF is Canada's national particle accelerator centre. It is considered Canada's premier physics laboratory, and consistently regarded as one of the world's leading subatomic physics research centers. Owned and operated by a consortium of u ...
showed interest in designing the ring, but the
Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory
400px, The above-ground SAL building, seen around 1994.
The Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory (SAL) was a linear accelerator facility on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The facility was constructed in ...
(SAL) at the
University of Saskatchewan
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
became prominent in the design. In 1991 CISR submitted a proposal to NSERC for a final design study. This was turned down, but in later years, under President Peter Morand, NSERC became more supportive. In 1994 NSERC committee recommended a Canadian synchrotron light source and a further NSERC committee was formed to select between two bids to host such a facility, from the Universities of Saskatchewan and Western Ontario. In 1996 this committee recommended that the Canadian Light Source be built in Saskatchewan.
With NSERC unable to supply the required funds it was not clear where funding would come from. In 1997 the
Canada Foundation for Innovation The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI; french: Fondation canadienne pour l'innovation, ''FCI'') is an independent not-for-profit organization that invests in research facilities and equipment in Canada's universities, colleges, research hospital ...
(CFI) was created to fund large scientific projects, possibly to provide a mechanism to fund the CLS. In 1998 a University of Saskatchewan team led b
Dennis Skopik the SAL director, submitted a proposal to CFI.
The proposal was to fund 40% of the construction costs, with remaining money having to come from elsewhere. Assembling these required matching funds has been called "an unprecedented level of collaboration among governments, universities, and industry in Canada"
''The Star-Phoenix'' 20 October 2004 and Bancroft – leader of the rival UWO bid – anckowledged the "Herculean" efforts of the Saskatchewan team in obtaining funds from the University, the City of Saskatoon,
Saskatchewan Power, NRC, the Provincial Government of Saskatchewan, and
Western Economic Diversification.
At a late hour CFI told the proponents that it would not accept the SAL
LINAC
A linear particle accelerator (often shortened to linac) is a type of particle accelerator that accelerates charged subatomic particles or ions to a high speed by subjecting them to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear be ...
as part of the proposal, and the resulting shortfall was met in part by the spontaneous announcement by the Saskatoon city council and then Mayor
Henry Dayday
Henry Dayday (born October 8, 1939) is a Canadian politician who served as the mayor of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan from 1988 to 2000. He was elected mayor four times, tied for the most since mayoral terms were extended beyond one year in 1954, althou ...
that they would double their contribution as long as other partners would. On 31 March 1999 the success of the CFI proposal was announced.
The following month Skopik took a position at
Jefferson Lab
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), commonly called Jefferson Lab or JLab, is a US National Laboratory located in Newport News, Virginia. Its stated mission is "to provide forefront scientific facilities, opportunities and ...
in the USA. He decided not to stay on as director of the Saskatoon facility because his expertise was in subatomic particles, and, he argued, the head of the CLS should be a researcher who specializes in using such a facility. His successor was Mike Bancroft
Construction: 1999–2004
At the start of the project, all staff members with the former SAL were transferred into a new
not-for-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
corporation, Canadian
Light Source Inc., CLSI, which had primary responsibility for the technical design, construction and operation of the facility. As a separate corporation from the University, CLSI had the legal and organizational freedom suitable for this responsibility. UMA, an experienced engineering firm, now part of
AECOM
AECOM (, ; formerly AECOM Technology Corporation) is an American multinational infrastructure consulting firm.
AECOM has approximately 51,000 employees, and is number 157 on the 2019 Fortune 500 list.
The company's official name from 1990 t ...
, with extensive experience managing large technical and civil construction projects, was hired as
project managers
A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined ...
.
The new building – attached to the existing SAL building, and measuring 84m by 83m in area with a maximum height of 23m – was completed in early 2001.
Bancroft's appointment ended in October 2001 and he returned to UWO, with Mark de Jong appointed acting director. Bancroft remained as acting Scientific Director until 2004.
The SAL LINAC was refurbished and placed back into service in 2002 while the booster and storage rings were still under construction.
First turn was achieved in the booster ring in July 2002 with full booster commissioning completed by September 2002.
New director Bill Thomlinson, an expert in synchrotron medical imaging, arrived in November 2002. He was recruited from the
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) is a joint research facility situated in Grenoble, France, supported by 22 countries (13 member countries: France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, ...
where he had been the head of the medical research group.
The 1991 proposal to NSERC envisioned a 1.5 GeV storage ring, since at this time the interest of the user community was mainly in the soft X-ray range. The ring was a racetrack layout of four to six
bend regions surrounding straights with extra
quadrupoles
A quadrupole or quadrapole is one of a sequence of configurations of things like electric charge or current, or gravitational mass that can exist in ideal form, but it is usually just part of a multipole expansion of a more complex structure refl ...
to allow for variable functions in the straights. The design contemplated the use of
superconducting
Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in certain materials where electrical resistance vanishes and magnetic flux fields are expelled from the material. Any material exhibiting these properties is a superconductor. Unlike ...
bends in some locations to boost
the
photon
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they always ...
energies produced. The drawback of this design was the limited number of straight sections. In 1994 a more conventional machine with 8 straight sections was proposed, again with 1.5 GeV energy. At this time more users of hard X-rays were interested and it was felt that both the energy and number of straight sections were too low. By the time funding was secured in 1999 the design had changed to 2.9 GeV, with longer straight sections to enable two
insertion devices per straight, delivering beam to two independent beamlines.
Construction of the storage ring was completed in August 2003 and commissioning began the following month. Although beam could be stored, in March 2004 a large obstruction was found across the center of the chamber. Commissioning proceeded quickly after this was removed, and by June 2004 currents of 100mA could be achieved .
On 22 October 2004 the CLS officially opened, with an opening ceremony attended by federal and provincial dignitaries, including then-Federal
Minister of Finance
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...
Ralph Goodale
Ralph Edward Goodale (born October 5, 1949) is a Canadian diplomat and retired politician who has served as the Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom since April 19, 2021.
Goodale was first elected in 1974 as the member of Parliamen ...
and then-
Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert
Lorne Albert Calvert (born December 24, 1952) was the 13th premier of Saskatchewan, from 2001 to 2007. Calvert served as leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party from 2001 to June 6, 2009, when he was succeeded by Dwain Lingenfelter.
Ear ...
, university presidents and leading scientists. October 2004 was declared "Synchrotron Month" by the city of Saskatoon and the Saskatchewan government.
Peter Mansbridge
Peter Mansbridge (born July 6, 1948) is a British-born Canadian retired news anchor. From 1988 to 2017, he was chief correspondent for CBC News and anchor of '' The National,'' CBC Television's flagship nightly newscast. He was also host of CB ...
broadcast the
CBC's nightly
newscast
News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or telev ...
''The National'' from the top of the storage ring the day before the official opening.
In
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
local
MP Lynne Yelich
Lynne Yelich, (née Zdunich; born March 24, 1953) is a Canadian politician and was the Conservative MP for the former riding of Blackstrap and predecessor riding components, from 2000 to 2015.
Life and career
Yelich was born in Saskatoon, Sas ...
said "There were many challenges to overcome, but thanks to the vision, dedication and persistence of its supporters, the Canadian Light Source synchrotron is open for business in Saskatoon."
Operation and expansion: 2005–2012
The initial funding included seven beamlines, referred to as Phase I, which covered the full spectral range: two
infrared
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
beamlines, three soft X-ray beamlines and two hard X-ray beamlines.
Further beamlines were built in two further phases, II (7 beamlines) and III (5 beamlines), announced in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Most of these were funded through applications to CFI by individual universities including UWO, the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...
and
Guelph University
, mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities"
, established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922)
, type = Public university
, chancellor ...
In March 2005 leading infrared researcher Tom Ellis joined the CLS from
Acadia University
Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadia ...
as Director of Research. He had previously spent 16 years at the
Université de Montréal
The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte- ...
.
The first external user was hosted in 2005, and the first research papers with results from the CLS were published in March 2006 – one from the University of Saskatchewan on
peptide
Peptides (, ) are short chains of amino acids linked by peptide bonds. Long chains of amino acids are called proteins. Chains of fewer than twenty amino acids are called oligopeptides, and include dipeptides, tripeptides, and tetrapeptides.
A ...
s and the other from the University of Western Ontario on materials for
organic light-emitting diodes
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light i ...
.
A committee was set up in 2006 to
peer review
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
proposals for beamtime, under the chairmanship of Adam Hitchcock of
McMaster University
McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...
. By 2007 more than 150 external users had used the CLS,
and all seven of the initial beamlines had achieved significant results.
The CLS building was also expanded in two phases. A glass and steel expansion was completed in 2007 to house the phase II medical imaging beamline BMIT,
and construction on the expansion needed to house the phase III Brockhouse beamline started in July 2011
and is still ongoing as of July 2012.
Bill Thomlinson retired in 2008, and in May of that year physics professor Josef Hormes of the
University of Bonn
The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...
, former director of the
CAMD Commodore Amiga MIDI Driver (CAMD) is a shared library for AmigaOS which provides a general device driver for MIDI data, so that applications can share MIDI data with each other in real-time, and interface to MIDI hardware in a device-independent wa ...
synchrotron at
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
was announced as the new director.
Science fiction author
Robert J. Sawyer
Robert James Sawyer (born April 29, 1960) is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 24 novels published and his short fiction has appeared in ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'', ''Amazing Stories'', '' On Spec'', ''Nature'', and numerou ...
was writer-in-residence for two months in 2009 in what he called a "once in a lifetime opportunity to hang out with working scientists"
While there he wrote most of the novel "Wonder",
which won the 2012
Prix Aurora Award
The Aurora Awards (french: Prix Aurora-Boréal) are a set of primarily literary awards given annually for the best Canadian science fiction or fantasy professional and fan works and achievements from the previous year."Literary glow of Auroras lur ...
for best novel."
By the end of 2010 more than 1000 individual researchers had used the facility, and the number of publications had passed 500.
From 2009–2012 several key metrics doubled, including the number of users and the number of publications, with more than 190 papers published in 2011. More than 400 proposals were received for beam time in 2012, with approximately a 50% oversubscription rate averaged over the operational beamlines. By 2012 the user community spanned all regions of Canada and around 20 other countries.
That year a high school group from
La Loche
La Loche () is a village in northwest Saskatchewan. It is located at the end of Highway 155 on the eastern shore of Lac La Loche in Canada's boreal forest. La Loche had a population of 2,827 in 2016 and is within the Northern Saskatchewan Admini ...
Saskatchewan became the first to use the purpose built educational beamline IDEAS.
Also in 2012 the CLS signed an agreement with the
Advanced Photon Source synchrotron in the USA to allow Canadian researchers access to their facilities.
Science
An international team led by
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...
professor Ken Ng solved the detailed structure of
RNA polymerase
In molecular biology, RNA polymerase (abbreviated RNAP or RNApol), or more specifically DNA-directed/dependent RNA polymerase (DdRP), is an enzyme that synthesizes RNA from a DNA template.
Using the enzyme helicase, RNAP locally opens the ...
using X-ray crystallography at the CLS. This enzyme replicates itself as the
Norwalk virus
Norovirus, sometimes referred to as the winter vomiting disease, is the most common cause of gastroenteritis. Infection is characterized by non-bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and stomach pain. Fever or headaches may also occur. Symptoms usually devel ...
spreads through the body, and has been linked to other
superviruses such as
hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, a ...
,
West Nile virus
West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family '' Flaviviridae'', from the genus '' Flavivirus'', which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. The v ...
and the
common cold
The common cold or the cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract that primarily affects the respiratory mucosa of the nose, throat, sinuses, and larynx. Signs and symptoms may appear fewer than two days after exposu ...
. Its duplication is responsible for the onset of such viruses.
CLS scientist Luca Quaroni and University of Saskatchewan professor Alan Casson used infrared microscopy to identify
biomarker
In biomedical contexts, a biomarker, or biological marker, is a measurable indicator of some biological state or condition. Biomarkers are often measured and evaluated using blood, urine, or soft tissues to examine normal biological processes, p ...
s inside individual cells from tissue associated with
Barrett's esophagus
Barrett's esophagus is a condition in which there is an abnormal (metaplastic) change in the mucosal cells lining the lower portion of the esophagus, from stratified squamous epithelium to simple columnar epithelium with interspersed goblet ce ...
. This disease can lead to an aggressive form of cancer known as
esophageal adenocarcinoma
Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse voi ...
.
Researchers from
Lakehead University
Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, grad ...
and the University of Saskatchewan used the CLS to investigate the deaths of
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
sailors buried in
Antigua
Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...
in the late 1700s. They used X-ray fluorescence to look for trace elements such as lead and
strontium
Strontium is the chemical element with the symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, strontium is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is ex ...
in bones from a recently
excavated naval cemetery
Scientists from
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
worked with CLS scientists to design a cleaner, faster
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
. The new battery charges in less than two minutes, thanks to a newly developed
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element with the symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent
In chemistry, the valence (US spelling) or valency (British spelling) of an element is the measure of its combining capacity with o ...
nanostructure
A nanostructure is a structure of intermediate size between microscopic and molecular structures. Nanostructural detail is microstructure at nanoscale.
In describing nanostructures, it is necessary to differentiate between the number of dimens ...
. The team grew
nanocrystal
A ''nanocrystal'' is a material particle having at least one dimension smaller than 100 nanometres, based on quantum dots
(a nanoparticle) and composed of atoms in either a single- or poly-crystalline arrangement.
The size of nanocrystals dist ...
s of iron and nickel on carbon. Traditional batteries lack this structure, mixing iron and nickel with conductors more or less randomly. The result was a strong chemical bond between the materials, which the team identified and studied at the synchrotron.
A team led by the
Politecnico di Milano
The Polytechnic University of Milan () is the largest technical university in Italy, with about 42,000 students.
The university offers undergraduate, graduate and higher education courses in engineering, architecture and design.
Founded in 18 ...
, including scientists from the
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...
and the University of British Columbia, found the first experimental evidence that a
charge density wave
A charge density wave (CDW) is an ordered quantum fluid of electrons in a linear chain compound or layered crystal. The electrons within a CDW form a standing wave pattern and sometimes collectively carry an electric current. The electrons in such ...
instability competes with superconductivity in
high-temperature superconductors
High-temperature superconductors (abbreviated high-c or HTS) are defined as materials that behave as superconductors at temperatures above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The adjective "high temperature" is only in respect to previo ...
. They used four synchrotrons including the REIXS beamline at CLS.
Using the X-ray spectromicroscopy beamline, a research team led by scientists from the
State University of New York, Buffalo produced images of
graphene
Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure. showing how folds and ripples act as
speed bump
Speed bumps (also called traffic thresholds, speed breakers or sleeping policemen) are the common name for a class of traffic calming devices that use vertical deflection to slow motor-vehicle traffic in order to improve safety conditions. Varia ...
s for electrons, affecting its
conductivity
Conductivity may refer to:
*Electrical conductivity, a measure of a material's ability to conduct an electric current
**Conductivity (electrolytic), the electrical conductivity of an electrolyte in solution
** Ionic conductivity (solid state), ele ...
. This has implications for the use of graphene in a variety of future products.
A collaboration between the
University of Regina
The University of Regina is a public university, public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the Unive ...
and the
Royal Saskatchewan Museum
The Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) is a Canadian natural history museum in Regina, Saskatchewan. Founded in 1906, it is the first museum in Saskatchewan, and the first provincial museum in the three Prairie Provinces. The institution was formed ...
has been investigating
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
s at the CLS, including "Scotty," a
Tyrannosaurus
''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosa ...
found in Saskatchewan in 1991, one of the most complete and largest T-rex skeletons ever found. They looked at the concentration of elements in bones to study the impact of the environment on such animals.
Industrial program and economic impact
From inception, the CLS showed a "strong commitment to industrial users and private/public partnerships", with then-director Bancroft reporting "more than 40 letters of support from industry indicating that
he CLSis important for what they do". The CLS has an industrial group, within the larger experimental facilities division, with industrial liaison scientists who make synchrotron techniques available to a "non-traditional" user base who are not synchrotron experts. By 2007 more than 60 projects had been carried out,
although in a speech in the same year, then-CLS director Bill Thomlinson said that "one of the biggest challenges for the synchrotron...is to get private users through the door", with less than 10% of time actually used by industry.
In 1999 then-Saskatoon mayor Dayday stated that "the CLS will add $122 million to Canada's GDP during construction and $12 million annually after that". An
economic impact study of the two
financial year
A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...
s 2009/10 and 10/11 showed the CLS had added $45 million per year to the Canadian GDP, or about $3 for every $1 of operating funding.
The CLS has stated that "the primary means of accessing the CLS is through a system of peer review, which ensures that the proposed science is of the highest quality and permits access to the facility to any interested researcher, regardless of regional, national, academic, industrial or governmental affiliation."
Official visitors
Then-Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien is a law graduate from Uni ...
visited the CLS in November 2000 during an
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
campaign stop in Saskatoon.
He gave a speech on the mezzanine level of the building following his tour of the facility, praising the project for helping to reverse the
brain drain of scientists from Canada.
In August 2010 then-
Governor General
Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
Michaëlle Jean
Michaëlle Jean (; born September 6, 1957) is a Canadian stateswoman and former journalist who served from 2005 to 2010 as governor general of Canada, the 27th since Canadian Confederation. She is the first Haitian Canadian and black person ...
visited the CLS as part of a two-day tour of Saskatchewan.
In April 2012 the CLS was "visited" remotely by Governor General
David Johnston
David Lloyd Johnston (born June 28, 1941) is a Canadian academic, author, and statesman who served from 2010 to 2017 as Governor General of Canada, the 28th since Canadian Confederation. He is the commissioner of the Leaders' Debates Commis ...
. He was visiting the
LNLS synchrotron in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, during a live link-up, by video chat and remote control software, between the two facilities. January 18, 2017 Canadian Science Minister Kirsty Duncan toured the complex.
Medical isotope project
With the
NRU reactor at the
Chalk River Laboratories
Chalk River Laboratories (french: Laboratoires de Chalk River; also known as CRL, Chalk River Labs and formerly Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories, CRNL) is a Canadian nuclear research facility in Deep River, about north-west of Ottawa.
CRL is a ...
due to close in 2016, there was a need to find alternative sources of the medical isotope
technetium-99m
Technetium-99m (99mTc) is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (itself an isotope of technetium), symbolized as 99mTc, that is used in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures annually, making it the most commonly used medical ra ...
, a mainstay of
nuclear medicine
Nuclear medicine or nucleology is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging, in a sense, is " radiology done inside out" because it records radiation emi ...
. In 2011 the Canadian Light Source received $14 Million in funding to investigate the feasibility of using an electron
LINAC
A linear particle accelerator (often shortened to linac) is a type of particle accelerator that accelerates charged subatomic particles or ions to a high speed by subjecting them to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear be ...
to produce
molybdenum-99
Molybdenum (42Mo) has 33 known isotopes, ranging in atomic mass from 83 to 115, as well as four metastable nuclear isomers. Seven isotopes occur naturally, with atomic masses of 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, and 100. All unstable isotopes of molybdenum ...
, the parent isotope of technetium-99.
As part of this project a 35MeV LINAC has been installed in an unused underground experimental hall previously used for
photonuclear experiments with the SAL LINAC. First
irradiation
Irradiation is the process by which an object is exposed to radiation. The exposure can originate from various sources, including natural sources. Most frequently the term refers to ionizing radiation, and to a level of radiation that will serve ...
s are planned for late summer 2012, with the results to be evaluated by the
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
Health Sciences Centre.
Education program
The CLS has an education program – "Students on the Beamlines" – funded by NSERC Promoscience. This outreach program for science allows high school students to fully experience the work of a scientist, in addition to having the chance to use the CLS beamlines.
"The program allows students the development of active research, a very rare phenomena in schools and provides direct access to the use of a particle accelerator, something even rarer!" said teacher Steve Desfosses form College Saint-Bernard,
Drummondville
Drummondville is a city in the Centre-du-Québec region of Quebec, located east of Montreal on the Saint-François River. The population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 79,258. The mayor of Drummondville is Stéphanie Lacoste.
Drummondville is ...
, Quebec.
["Le synchrotron de Saskatoon mis à la portée de jeunes scientifiques du Collège Saint-Bernard"](_blank)
,''L'Express'' 3 March 2012
Dene
The Dene people () are an Aboriginal peoples in Canada, indigenous group of First Nations in Canada, First Nations who inhabit the northern Boreal forest of Canada, boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languag ...
students from La Loche, Saskatchewan have taken part in this program twice, looking at effects of
acid rain
Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but acid ...
.
Student Jontae DesRoches commented "Elders have noticed that the landscape, where trees used to grow, there's none growing anymore. They're pretty concerned because wildlife is disappearing. Like, here there used to be rabbits and now there's none".
In May 2012 three student groups were at the CLS simultaneously, with the La Loche students as the first to use the IDEAS beamline.
"The aim for the students," according to CLS education and outreach coordinator Tracy Walker, "is to get an authentic scientific inquiry that's different from the examples in textbooks that have been done thousands of times."
Students from six
provinces
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
as well as the
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...
have been directly involved in experiments, some of which have yielded publishable-quality research.
In 2012 the CLS was awarded the
Canadian Nuclear Society
The Canadian Nuclear Society (CNS) is a not-for-profit organization representing individuals contributing to, or otherwise supporting, nuclear science and engineering in Canada. Since 2017, the group has invested in the development of small modul ...
's Education and Communication Award "in recognition of its commitment to community outreach, increasing public awareness of synchrotron science, and developing innovative and outstanding secondary educational programs such as Students on the Beamlines".
Technical description
Accelerators
Injection system
The injection system consists of a 250 MeV LINAC, a low energy transfer line, a 2.9 GeV booster synchrotron and a high energy transfer line.
The LINAC was operated for over 30 years as part of the Saskatchewan Accelerator Lab
and operates at 2856 MHz. The 78m low energy transfer line takes the electrons from the below-ground LINAC to the ground level booster in the newer CLS building, via two vertical chicanes. The full energy 2.9 GeV booster, chosen to give high orbit stability in the storage ring, operates at 1 Hz, with an RF frequency of 500 MHz, unsynchronised with the LINAC. This results in significant beam loss at the extraction energy.
Storage ring
The storage ring cell structure has a fairly compact lattice with twelve straight sections available for injection,
RF cavities and 9 sections available for insertion devices. Each cell has two bending magnets detuned to allow some dispersion in the straights – the so-called double-bend achromat structure – and thus reduce the overall beam size. As well as the two bend magnets each cell has three families of quadrupole magnets and two families of
sextupole magnet
A sextupole magnet (also known as a hexapole magnet) consist of six magnetic poles set out in an arrangement of alternating north and south poles arranged around an axis. They are used in particle accelerators for the control of chromatic aberrat ...
s. The ring circumference is 171m, with a straight section length of 5.2m.
The CLS is the smallest of the newer synchrotron facilities, which results in a relatively high horizontal
beam emittance
In accelerator physics, emittance is a property of a charged particle beam. It refers to the area occupied by the beam in a position-and-momentum phase space.
Each particle in a beam can be described by its position and momentum along each of ...
of 18.2 nm-rad.
The CLS was also one of the first facilities to
chicane
A chicane () is a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography. Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety. For example, one form of chicane is ...
two
undulator
An undulator is an insertion device from high-energy physics and usually part of a larger
installation, a synchrotron storage ring, or it may be a component of a free electron laser. It consists of a periodic structure of dipole magnets. These c ...
s in one straight section, to maximize the number of insertion device beamlines.
All five of the phase I X-ray beamlines use insertion devices. Four use permanent magnet undulators designed and assembled at the CLS, including one in-vacuum undulator and one elliptically polarized undulator (EPU). The HXMA beamline uses a superconducting
wiggler built by the
Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics
The Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP) is one of the major centres of advanced study of nuclear physics in Russia. It is located in the Siberian town Akademgorodok, on Academician Lavrentiev Avenue. The institute was founded by Gers ...
in
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...
.
Phase II added two further devices including another Budker superconducting wiggler, for the BMIT beamline.
Phase III will add four more devices, filling 8 of the 9 available straight sections. Longer term development includes the replacement of two of the phase I undulators with elliptically polarizing devices.
Since 2021, the ring operates in a top-up mode during normal user operations,
injecting every few minutes to maintain a stable ring current just below 220 mA. Prior to this change, the ring operated with a fill current of 250mA in decay mode, with two injections per day.
Facility status is shown on a "machine status
webpage and using th
CLSFCaccount on Twitter.
Superconducting RF cavity
The CLS was the first light source to use a
superconducting RF (SRF) cavity in the storage ring from the beginning of operations.
The
niobium
Niobium is a chemical element with chemical symbol Nb (formerly columbium, Cb) and atomic number 41. It is a light grey, crystalline, and ductile transition metal. Pure niobium has a Mohs hardness rating similar to pure titanium, and it has sim ...
cavity is based on the 500 MHz design used at the
Cornell Electron Storage Ring
The Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR, pronounced Caesar) is a particle accelerator operated by Cornell University and located 40 feet beneath a football field on their Ithaca campus. The accelerator has contributed to fundamental research in hi ...
(CESR) which allows potentially beam-perturbing high order modes to propagate out of the cavity where they can be very effectively damped.
The superconducting nature of the niobium cavity means only 0.02% of the RF power put into the cavity is wasted in heating the cavity as compared to roughly 40% for normal-conducting (copper) cavities. However, a large portion of this power saving - about 160 kW out of the 250 kW saved - is needed to power the cryogenic plant required to supply liquid helium to the cavity. The SRF cavity at CLS is fed with RF from a 310 kW Thales klystron.
Beamlines
See also
*
List of synchrotron radiation facilities
This is a table of synchrotrons and storage rings used as synchrotron radiation sources, and free electron laser
A free-electron laser (FEL) is a (fourth generation) light source producing extremely brilliant and short pulses of radiation. An F ...
*
Plasma Physics Laboratory (Saskatchewan)
*
Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory
400px, The above-ground SAL building, seen around 1994.
The Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory (SAL) was a linear accelerator facility on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The facility was constructed in ...
*
Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility
*
G. Michael Bancroft
*
Amira Abdelrasoul
*
Innovation Place Research Park
Innovation Place is the registered business name of the Saskatchewan Opportunities Corporation (SOCO), a crown corporation in Saskatchewan. SOCO operates two research parks: one located near the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan ...
*
EPICS
The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a set of software tools and applications used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large sci ...
(Used for Accelerator and Beamline Control Systems)
*
Canadian government scientific research organizations
Expenditures by federal and provincial organizations on scientific research and development accounted for about 10% of all such spending in Canada in 2006. These organizations are active in natural and social science research, engineering research, ...
*
Canadian university scientific research organizations
*
Canadian industrial research and development organizations
Expenditures by Canadian corporations on research and development accounted for about 50% of all spending on scientific research and development in Canada in 2007.
In the corporate sector research and development tends to focus on the creation or ...
*
Singularity Principle (movie filmed at the Canadian Light Source)
References
External links
Canadian Light Source Website
{{authority control
Nuclear research institutes
Research institutes in Canada
Synchrotron radiation facilities
University of Saskatchewan
Non-profit organizations based in Saskatchewan
Buildings and structures in Saskatoon
1999 establishments in Saskatchewan
Companies based in Saskatoon