Hello everyone,

 

I was driving through Oxfordshire at the weekend and spotted a rather amazing-looking building not far from Oxford. I did a bit of research and found out that it is the Diamond synchotron: http://www.harwelloxford.com/node/90.

 

I was wondering if someone could explain to me what it's for? I don't have much of a brain for physics so the simpler the explanation, the better!!

 

Thanks

Its basic purpose is as a really really intense light source, over a massive range of different frequencies. A couple of my friends spend a month or so a year there doing various experiments.

 

If you accelerate a charged particle it will radiate at a certain frequency (which depends on the acceleration), so if you have electrons in an accelerator and you make them turn a corner because to turn they need to accelerate they will also radiate. So what you do is you build your experiments so that they get hit by the radiation that occurs at the curves...

Probably the most expensive light bulb in the world.

How amazing! So what kind of things do scientists use it to find out?

Rach - there is a diamond synchrotron podcast. I haven't listened to it myself - but I know the team that do it and I think the podcast will be fairly accessible

There are a few examples of what Diamond is used for here: http://www.labnews.co.uk/feature_archive.php/6018/5/diamond-discoveries I got the spend the day there last year and it's amazing!

 

They also have lots of videos here http://www.youtube.com/labnews#p/c/476F98739A7FC3AB (hope that works). BackStage Science's video is also worth a watch:

Edited June 16, 201114 yr by Kerry