Diamond Light Source (or Diamond) is the UK'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 s ...
science facility located at the
Harwell Science and Innovation Campus
The Harwell Science and Innovation Campus is a 700-acre science and technology campus in Oxfordshire, England. Over 6,000 people work there in over 240 public and private sector organisations, working across sectors including Space, Clean Ener ...
in
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
. Its purpose is to produce
intense beams of light whose special characteristics are useful in many areas of scientific research. In particular it can be used to investigate the structure and properties of a wide range of materials from
proteins
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...
(to provide information for designing new and better drugs), and engineering components (such as a fan blade from an aero-engine) to conservation of archeological artifacts (for example
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
's flagship the
Mary Rose
The ''Mary Rose'' (launched 1511) is a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. She served for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. After being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her l ...
).
There are more than 50 light sources across the world. With an energy of 3 GeV, Diamond is a medium energy synchrotron currently operating with 32 beamlines.
Design, construction and finance
![Diamond Snow Outside PlateBlur](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Diamond_Snow_Outside_PlateBlur.jpg)
The Diamond synchrotron is the largest UK-funded scientific facility to be built in the UK since the
Nimrod proton synchrotron which was sited at the
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) is one of the national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). It began as the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory, merged with the Atlas ...
in 1964. Nearby facilities include the
ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, the
Central Laser Facility Central Laser Facility (CLF) is a research facility in the UK. It is part of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. The facility is dedicated to studying the applications of high energy lasers. It was opened in 1976. , and the laboratories at Harwell and Culham (including the
Joint European Torus
The Joint European Torus, or JET, is an operational magnetically confined plasma physics experiment, located at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, UK. Based on a tokamak design, the fusion research facility is a joint European pro ...
(JET) project). It replaced the second-generation synchrotron which was at the
Daresbury Laboratory
Daresbury Laboratory is a scientific research laboratory based at Sci-Tech Daresbury campus near Daresbury in Halton, Cheshire, England. The laboratory began operations in 1962 and was officially opened on 16 June 1967 as the Daresbury Nuclear ...
in Cheshire.
Diamond produced its first user beam towards the end of January 2007, and was formally opened by
Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...
on 19 October 2007.
Construction
A design study during the 1990s was completed in 2001 by scientists at Daresbury and construction began following the creation of the operating company, Diamond Light Source Ltd.
[The name DIAMOND was originally conceived by Mike Poole (the originator of the DIAMOND project) and stood as an acronym meaning DIpole And Multipole Output for the Nation at Daresbury. With the location now being Oxfordshire, not Daresbury, the name reflects the synchrotron light being both hard (referring to the "hard" X-ray region of the ]electromagnetic spectrum
The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of frequencies (the spectrum) of electromagnetic radiation and their respective wavelengths and photon energies.
The electromagnetic spectrum covers electromagnetic waves with frequencies ranging from ...
) and bright.
The construction costs of £260m covered the synchrotron building, the accelerators inside it, the first seven experimental stations (beamlines) and the adjacent office block, Diamond House.
Governance
The facility is operated by Diamond Light Source Ltd, a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
company established in March 2002. The company receives 86% of its funding from the UK Government via the
Science and Technology Facilities Council
The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a United Kingdom government agency that carries out research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astro ...
(STFC) and 14% from the
Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glaxo ...
.
Synchrotron
![Diamond Inside Panorama](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Diamond_Inside_Panorama.jpg)
Diamond generates
synchrotron light
Synchrotron radiation (also known as magnetobremsstrahlung radiation) is the electromagnetic radiation emitted when relativistic charged particles are subject to an acceleration perpendicular to their velocity (). It is produced artificially in ...
at wavelengths ranging from
X-rays
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 Picometre, picometers to 10 Nanometre, nanometers, corresponding to frequency, ...
to the
far infrared
Far infrared (FIR) is a region in the infrared spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. Far infrared is often defined as any radiation with a wavelength of 15 micrometers (μm) to 1 mm (corresponding to a range of about 20 THz to ...
. This is also known as
synchrotron radiation
Synchrotron radiation (also known as magnetobremsstrahlung radiation) is the electromagnetic radiation emitted when relativistic charged particles are subject to an acceleration perpendicular to their velocity (). It is produced artificially in ...
and is the
electromagnetic radiation
In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) consists of waves of the electromagnetic field, electromagnetic (EM) field, which propagate through space and carry momentum and electromagnetic radiant energy. It includes radio waves, microwaves, inf ...
emitted by charged particles travelling near the
speed of light
The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit ...
when their path deviates from a straight line. It is used in a huge variety of experiments to study the structure and behaviour of many different types of matter.
The particles Diamond uses are
electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no kn ...
s travelling at an energy of 3
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 ...
round a 561.6 m circumference
storage ring
A storage ring is a type of circular particle accelerator in which a continuous or pulsed particle beam may be kept circulating typically for many hours. Storage of a particular particle depends upon the mass, momentum and usually the charge of th ...
. This is not a true circle, but a 48-sided polygon with a bending magnet at each vertex and straight sections in between. The bending magnets are
dipole magnet
A dipole magnet is the simplest type of magnet. It has two poles, one north and one south. Its magnetic field lines form simple closed loops which emerge from the north pole, re-enter at the south pole, then pass through the body of the magnet. T ...
s whose magnetic field deflects the electrons so as to steer them around the ring. As Diamond is a third generation light source it also uses special arrays of magnets called insertion devices. These cause the electrons to undulate and it is their sudden change of direction that causes the electrons to emit an exceptionally bright beam of electromagnetic radiation, brighter than that of a single bend when traveling through a bending magnet. This is the synchrotron light used for experiments. Some beamlines, however, use light solely from a bending magnet without the need of an insertion device.
The electrons reach this high energy via a series of pre-accelerator stages before being injected into the 3 GeV storage ring:
* an
electron gun
An electron gun (also called electron emitter) is an electrical component in some vacuum tubes that produces a narrow, collimated electron beam that has a precise kinetic energy. The largest use is in cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), used in nearly ...
– 90 keV
* a 100 MeV
linear accelerator
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 beam ...
* a 100 MeV – 3 GeV booster
synchrotron
A synchrotron is a particular type of cyclic particle accelerator, descended from the cyclotron, in which the accelerating particle beam travels around a fixed closed-loop path. The magnetic field which bends the particle beam into its closed p ...
(158 m in circumference).
The Diamond synchrotron is housed in a silver
toroidal building of 738 m in circumference, covering an area in excess of 43,300 square metres, or the area of over six
football pitches
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
. This contains the
storage ring
A storage ring is a type of circular particle accelerator in which a continuous or pulsed particle beam may be kept circulating typically for many hours. Storage of a particular particle depends upon the mass, momentum and usually the charge of th ...
and a number 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, with the linear accelerator and booster synchrotron housed in the centre of the ring. These beamlines are the experimental stations where the synchrotron light's interaction with matter is used for research purposes. Seven beamlines were available when Diamond became operational in 2007, with more coming online as construction continued. As of April 2019 there were 32 beamlines in operation. Diamond is intended ultimately to host about 33 beamlines, supporting the life, physical and environmental sciences.
Diamond is also home to eleven
electron microscope
An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...
s. Nine of these are
cryo-electron microscopes specialising in life sciences including two provided for industry use in partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific; the remaining two microscopes are dedicated to research of advanced materials.
Case studies
* In September 2007, scientists from
Cardiff University
, latin_name =
, image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University
, motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord
, mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord
, established = 1 ...
led by Tim Wess, found that the Diamond synchrotron could be used to see hidden content of ancient documents by
illumination without opening them (penetrating layers of
parchment
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...
).
* In November 2010 data collected at Diamond by
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
formed the basis for a paper in the journal
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
advancing the understanding of how HIV and other retroviruses infect human and animal cells. The findings may enable improvements in gene therapy to correct gene malfunctions.
* In June 2011 data from Diamond led to an article in the journal Nature detailing the 3D structure of the human
Histamine H1 receptor
The H1 receptor is a histamine receptor belonging to the family of rhodopsin-like G-protein-coupled receptors. This receptor is activated by the biogenic amine histamine. It is expressed in smooth muscles, on vascular endothelial cells, in the h ...
protein. This led to the development of 'third generation'
anti-histamines, drugs effective against some allergies without adverse side-effects.
* In December 2017, UK established the Synchrotron Techniques for African Research and Technology (START) with a £3.7 million funded by the
UK Research and Innovation for 3 years. START aimed to provide access to African researchers with focus on energy materials and structural biology. The step is circuital for the inception of the first
African Light Source.
*Published in th
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesin April 2018, a five institution collaboration including scientists from Diamond used three of Diamond's macromolecular beamlines to discover details of how a bacterium used plastic as an energy source. High resolution data allowed the researchers to determine the workings of an enzyme that degraded the plastic
PET
A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person's company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal. Popular pets are often considered to have attractive appearances, intelligence, ...
. Subsequently computational modelling was carried out to investigate and thus improve this mechanism.
*An article published i
Naturein 2019 described how a worldwide multidisciplinary collaboration designed several ways to control metal nano-particles, including synthesis at a substantially reduced cost for use as catalysts for the production of everyday goods.
* Research conducted at Diamond Light Source in 2020 helped determine the atomic structure of
SARS‑CoV‑2, the virus responsible for
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
.
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 ...
*
Synchrotron Radiation Source
The Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, England was the first second-generation synchrotron radiation source to produce X-rays. The research facility provided synchrotron radiation to a large number of expe ...
(SRS)
*
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, ...
(ESRF)
*
MAX IV
MAX IV is a next-generation synchrotron radiation facility in Lund, Sweden. Its design and planning has been carried out within the Swedish national laboratory, MAX-lab, which up until 2015 operated three accelerators for synchrotron radiatio ...
*
BESSY Bessy may refer to:
People
* Claude Bessy (dancer) (born 1932), French ballerina with the Paris Opera Ballet and director of its school (1972-2004)
* Claude Bessy (writer) (1945–1999), French writer, magazine editor, singer, video producer and pa ...
*
DESY
*
SOLEIL
SOLEIL ("Sun" in French) is a synchrotron facility near Paris, France. It performed its first acceleration of electrons on May 14, 2006. The name ''SOLEIL'' is a backronym for ''Source optimisée de lumière d’énergie intermédiaire du LURE ...
*
Canadian Light Source
The Canadian Light Source (CLS) (french: link=no, Centre canadien de rayonnement synchrotron – CCRS) is Canada's national synchrotron light source facility, located on the grounds of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, C ...
(CLS)
*
Elettra Synchrotron
*
The African Light Source (AfLS)
References
External links
*
Diamond: Britain's answer to the Large Hadron Collider''
Guardian
Guardian usually refers to:
* Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another
* ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper
(The) Guardian(s) may also refer to:
Places
* Guardian, West Virginia, Unite ...
'' article describing the machine and its applications
{{authority control
Physics institutes
Research institutes in Oxfordshire
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Synchrotron radiation facilities
Vale of White Horse
Wellcome Trust