The Advanced Photon Source (APS) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is one of the world’s leading X-ray light source facilities, enabling groundbreaking research in fields such as materials science, biology, and chemistry. In a typical year, more than 5,500 scientists from around the world travel to Argonne to use the extremely bright, focused X-ray beams produced by the APS. After more than 25 years of nearly continuous use and advancements in technology, the facility was ready for a major update.
Following years of development and planning, Argonne is in the process of completing an $815 million upgrade with funding from the DOE, transforming the APS into the brightest synchrotron X-ray facility in the world. After a yearlong shutdown to remove the original electron storage ring and replace it with a new multi-bend achromat lattice, the APS can now produce X-ray beams up to 500 times brighter than before. The horizontal emittance of the electron beam used to generate the X-rays was reduced from 3100 picometers-radians (pm·rad) to 45 pm·rad, resulting in smaller, more focused X-ray beams. (A picometer is a trillionth of a meter.) This upgrade is not just a technical milestone but has also transformed the APS into a cutting-edge research tool with unparalleled precision.