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.