Accelerator Technology

Daresbury Laboratory’s leading role in scientific research spans five decades, growing from its establishment in 1962 as part of the National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science (NIRNS). It was initially set up to house an accelerator for particle physics research andever since has progressively diversified its activities to meet new research challenges. 

Accelerator science is essentially based on the management of energy and information. An accelerator packages energy as a packet of particles or electro magnetic light waves and then focuses them in time and space in order to interrogate, image and even alter matter. These packages of energy and information can be continuous or in ‘staccato-fashion’ pulses enabling the capture of information in situations that may be changing at great speed in the domain of the ultra-small.

Beams of light or synchrotron radiation are emitted as a by-product of particle accelerator's operation. The discovery of this led to Daresbury directing its major scientific focus on synchrotron radiation, thereby developing its international reputation for accelerator technology.  Daresbury Laboratory staff built the world's first machine dedicated to producing this light, the Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) and there are now 60 such machines operating around the world.