According to CCTV and other media reports on December 11, the last magnet of the high-energy synchrotron radiation light source (HEPS) accelerator storage ring of the major national scientific and technological infrastructure project in mainland China was installed in place, which also marked the closed loop of the installation of the main equipment of the HEPS storage ring, the "Great Western Expedition National Heavy Instrument".
In fact, the equipment built by the mainland is a ring electron acceleration device, its volume is very large, the circumference of its main beam orbit is about 1360.4 meters, and the ring can put down 20 football fields, which is the largest in China and the third largest in the world.
Looking at its shape, it is very similar to the European Ring Hadron Collider, which is essentially the same type of equipment, but it is completely different in terms of application. Although the new accelerator is accelerating electrons, its application is not in the aspect of electrons, nor in the aspect of particle collisions, but in the use of an effect of electrons to produce a synchrotron radiation light source, and the light source is applied. Therefore, it can also be said that although this device is essentially an electron accelerator, it is a synchrotron radiation light source application device in application.
The high-energy synchrotron radiation light source (HEPS) manufactured by Continental is a fourth-generation synchrotron light source device, which has the characteristics of low emission, high brightness, high energy, super penetration ability, and wide optical spectrum. In order for a high-energy electron with a speed close to the speed of light to run smoothly along a curve in a ring accelerator and to be able to control its turning, it is necessary to ensure a very high accuracy in the installation of magnets, which is designed and built to a storage ring track with a circumference of 1360.4 meters, and the installation accuracy error of the magnet cannot exceed the diameter of a human hair, that is, less than 0.1 mm.
The positioning accuracy of a single co-frame magnet is less than 30 microns. Moreover, in order to ensure the accuracy of the 1776 magnets in the whole ring, the temperature in the tunnel must be stable at 25 degrees Celsius, and its positive and negative deviation cannot exceed 0.1 °C.
The high-energy synchrotron radiation light source is an important X-ray source, which has a wide range of applications, but compared with conventional X-rays, the high-energy synchrotron radiation light source has outstanding advantages in optical spectrum, brightness, penetration, collimation, coherence, etc., and can basically cover infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-ray and other electromagnetic bands.
But the synchrotron radiation light produced by the device is mainly a kind of X-ray, so it can also be said that it is an X-ray production device, the X-ray application in reality has been more extensive, and the more common X-ray generation device has two kinds: one is to bombard the metal with high-energy electrons, when the electrons hit the metal, it will slow down sharply, the energy generated by the impact will radiate electromagnetic waves, and when the electron beam is strong enough, X-rays can be excited, which is the method of generating X-rays used in hospitals, factories and even laboratories at present.
The X-ray energy produced by the bombardment of metal by high-energy electrons is relatively simple, and the brightness is not high enough. First of all, scientists discovered that electron beams moving in a vacuum magnetic field close to the speed of light also produce X-rays, which is due to the centripetal acceleration exerted by the Lorentz force that causes electrons to emit continuous X-rays along the tangent direction of the curved orbit.
In the 40s of the last century, the United States discovered this electromagnetic radiation on a ring electron synchrotron, which is generated synchronously when an electron beam curve is running, so it is called "synchrotron radiation", and later scientists created a high-energy synchrotron radiation light source (HEPS) accelerator for this battery radiation effect, which is specially used to produce a strong X-ray light source.
As mentioned earlier, this high-energy synchrotron radiation light source (HEPS) accelerator device is actually a major national scientific and technological infrastructure, which is a large equipment built by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Huairou Science City, Beijing, and is also the core device of this science city.
Since it is the core installation of a science city, it certainly has many scientific applications. In almost all fields related to microstructure, such as physics, chemistry, life science and medicine, materials science and engineering, energy science and technology, earth and environmental science, nanotechnology, and even aerospace, geology and archaeology, energy, medicine, bioengineering, environmental protection and other fields, all scientific research related to microscopic fields will use synchrotron radiation light sources, such as proteins, DNA, RNA, ribosomes, The structure of biological macromolecules, such as nucleosomes, as well as the study of molecules and atoms, requires the participation of synchrotron radiation sources to carry out research.
After the completion of the high-energy synchrotron radiation light source (HEPS) accelerator in the mainland, it will become the first high-energy synchrotron radiation light source in the mainland and one of the brightest fourth-generation synchrotron radiation light sources in the world, which can emit light 1 trillion times brighter than the sun, which will help the microscopic scientific research field to analyze the microstructure and evolution mechanism of matter at a deeper level.
This device is built in Beijing Huairou Science City, is about to enter the final stage of construction, is expected to start next year will begin to light commissioning, Ken will send out the first beam of light at the end of next year, which will attract a large number of application units to settle here, in the periphery of this circular electron accelerator, will build a lot of light source output ports, for the application of relevant units, which will also produce a considerable number of scientific research and application results in the future, so as to enhance the original innovation ability of the mainland's national development strategy and frontier basic science and technology.
Source: "Shangguan News" reported on December 11 that "the first beam of light will be launched in 2024, and the main body of the high-energy synchrotron radiation light source storage ring will be installed in a closed loop"