Spotlight On: ALBA Synchrotron
About us. ALBA is a 3rd Generation Synchrotron Light facility located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, and it is the newest source in the Mediterranean Area.
ALBA has been identified as a “Singular Technological and Scientific Infrastructure” within the Spanish scientific infrastructures. It is networked with other Synchrotron Light Sources from and outside Europe through common European projects and bilateral collaboration agreements.
The ALBA vision is to become a centre of excellence in Synchrotron Light Scientific and Industrial applications and to achieve the status of a recognized world class facility in its field. Its mission is to research in, deliver and maintain methods and techniques with which to conduct cutting edge Synchrotron Light based research and development.
The ALBA infrastructure hosts the experimental hall with the Phase I beamlines (BLs) and space for a total number of 31 BLs, the technical areas, laboratories and workshops as well as the electron accelerators providing the photon flux.
ALBA currently has seven operational state-of-the-art phase-I beamlines, comprising soft and hard X-rays, which are devoted mainly to biosciences, condensed matter (magnetic and electronic properties, nanoscience) and materials science. Additionally, two phase-II beamlines are in construction (infrared microspectroscopy and low-energy ultra-high-resolution angular photoemission for complex materials).
This large scientific infrastructure provides more than 5.000 hours of beam time per year and is available for the academic and the industrial sector, serving more than 1.000 researchers every year. Since as early as 2012, ALBA has been hosting official users, 75% from Spanish institutions and 25% from other countries.
Managed by the Consortium for the Construction, Equipping and Exploitation of the Synchrotron Light Source (CELLS), it is funded in equal parts by the Spanish and the Catalonian Administration.
ALBA is a facility committed to scientific excellence and to improve the well-being and progress of society as a whole.
Research team. The ALBA team is the first group within Spain which has dealt with the design, construction and operation of a complex accelerator infrastructure and has built up experience in all its technologies. It is now an active member of international collaborations for cutting-edge accelerator physics and technology, offering key contributions to new synchrotron light facilities or other accelerator based projects..
The ALBA team has acquired and developed important know-how in the management of large scientific projects and follows best practices, has the capability to integrate and develop new instrumentation or equipment into a complex facility and has effectively networked itself with other national and international facilities through a series of bilateral agreements and European projects.
Infrastructures and laboratories developed during the ALBA construction, like magnetic measurements, RF power, vacuum and metrology laboratories, are now available for future developments, and for establishing collaborations with other institutions, offering and sharing their utilization, and so ALBA can foster accelerator related R&D activities in Spanish industries.
Role within EuroCirCol. Within EuroCirCol, ALBA is leading the Work Package 4 for the Design of the Cryogenic Beam Vacuum System, in charge of coordination of the technical and scientific scope of the work package and acting as a coordination link to the other work packages.
In addition, we are in charge of the Study of the Beam Induced Vacuum Effects, responsibility of the ALBA Vacuum group with a dedicated PhD student.
Core competences and achievements. The construction of the ALBA accelerator complex has created at ALBA large groups of experts of scientists, engineers and technicians on the state-of-the-art accelerator technologies.
This expertise comes from the steps required for the construction of such a facility as ALBA, starting with the conceptual design and following with the engineering design, fabrication follow-up, acceptance test procedures, installation and set into operation of each accelerator component (magnets, vacuum chamber, RF system, diagnostics, etc) as well as the whole accelerator commissioning.
This know-how is nowadays used for the successful operation of ALBA, and will be used for the future upgrades of the ALBA accelerators. This means that currently ALBA is the main group in Spain involving scientists, engineers and technicians who are expert in accelerator science and technology.
ALBA has also laboratories and infrastructures created to test accelerator parts that have a strong potential in the post-construction scenario. Moreover, the existing accelerators are being used as test bench for new developments in diagnostics, light generation, beam controls, RF, power supplies and vacuum. This potentiality is being applied to new projects and developments.
In this sense, ALBA can offer expertise and test infrastructures as Accelerator beam dynamics and operation, RF systems, magnetic structures, ultra-high vacuum systems, beam diagnostics, real time control systems and data acquisition, high power and high stability power supplies, high precision mechanics, high speed electronics and precise synchronisation and timing systems, and survey, alignment and vibrational measurements
Relations with industry. In the accelerators field, the specialized laboratories mentioned above like the Magnetic Measurements laboratory, the Radio Frequency laboratory and the Optics and Metrology laboratory are available for industrial customers as well. Magnets manufacturing companies and national and international research institutes are regular customers of those labs. Close contact with the industry and industry associations, like INEUSTAR, is held to establish R&D collaborations and for providing specialized R&D services they may need.
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