High energy phroton basis (HEPS) will produce 1,000 billion times the X -rays of the sun surface, opening up research potential in many fields.
High energy phroton source (HEPS) near Beijing. Image: China Daily
About 50 km north of Beijing city center, the process of building the world’s strongest X -ray light is about to be completed, expected to operate later this year to support research in many areas from material to biomedical and physical science, according to MSN. High energy phroton basis (HEPS) will produce 1,000 billion times the X -ray X -rays of the sun’s surface in terms of the density of the photon density, thanks to extremely high focus and accuracy. Heps will surpass similar facilities in Europe, Asia and the United States, according to the High Energy Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the unit in charge of grassroots development.
“After Heps reaches brightness, it can reveal the micro world at unprecedented details,” Pan Weimin, Project Manager at the Institute, said. “Heps will provide a powerful tool to control matter and observe its entire life cycle.” The facility has started the handover and marking the testing of the integrated system with a real photon beam, a key stage to tweak the machine before conducting a test run, according to Pan.
From the 1970s, more than 70 light sources were built around the world to help scientists observe deep inside material, from decoding virus structure to developing high -class aerospace materials, batteries and semiconductors. These facilities operate through the electron acceleration approaching the lighting speed and controlling them with strong magnets. When electrons change direction, they emit high energy -light particles, which are used by researchers to explore the atomic and molecular structure of the material.
Heps is the fourth generation light source, a large leap in technology, using super -low emission storage to keep the electron beam gathered and stable. This allows scientists to observe smaller structures, faster processes and weaker signals than before. The brightness of its design is higher than other 4th -generation facilities such as Extremely Brilliant Source at the European Synchrotron radiation facility in Grenoble, France.
Pan and colleagues emphasize the self -reliance in technological and independent initiatives in developing HEPs’ core parts. An example is a new spraying and extract method that enhances the efficiency of the accelerator and reduces the environment. Instead of removing low -energy electron beams after use, Heps takes them back to the early stages, where they mix with new particles and accelerate. This method helps reduce electricity demand, improves cluster quality and overcomes the limitations of the magnet structure that is tightly arranged at the grassroots level.
With a total budget of US $ 665 million, Heps is one of the important national scientific infrastructure projects prioritized in the 13th 5 -year plan in China. The construction process begins in June 2019 and is expected to last for more than 6 years. Up to now, engineers have completed the accelerator and the first 14 paths. Heps will support the Shanghai Synchrotron radiation facility (SSRF), one of the leading third -generation light sources in China.