Abstract. The ALS, a third-generation synchrotron light source at Berkeley Lab, has been operating for almost a decade and is generating forefront science by exploiting the high brightness of a third-generation source in three areas: (1) high resolving power for spectroscopy; (2) high spatial resolution for microscopy and spectromicroscopy; and (3) high coherence for experiments such as speckle. However, the ALS was one of the first third-generation machines to be designed, and accelerator and insertion-device technology have significantly changed since its conception. As a result, its performance will inevitably be outstripped by newer, more advanced sources. To remain competitive and then set a new standard, the performance of the ALS, in particular its brightness, must be enhanced. Substantial improvements in brightness and current have always been feasible in principle, but they incur the penalty of a much reduced lifetime, which is totally unacceptable to our users. Significant brightness improvements can be realized in the core soft x-ray region by going to top-off operation, where injection would be quasi-continuous and the lifetime objections disappear. In top-off mode with higher average current, a reduced vertical emittance and beta function, and small-gap permanentmagnet or superconducting insertion devices, one to two orders of magnitude improvement in brightness can be had in the soft x-ray range. These improvements also extend the high energy range of the undulator radiation beyond the current limit of 2000 eV. Descriptions of the upgrade and the important new science achievable are presented.
PUSHING THE SCIENCE LIMITSExploitation of the high brightness of a third-generation synchrotron light source translates into three areas: (1) high resolving power for spectroscopy; (2) high spatial resolution for microscopy and spectromicroscopy; and (3) high coherence for experiments such as speckle. Here we explore the status of each and what would it take to make the next leap. Briefly, the ALS upgrade we propose to go to full-energy injection and higher current and to replace five obsolescent insertion devises with nine state-of-the art insertion devices and four new beamlines to be identified. Moreover, there would be no major disruption to the experimental program of the ALS, since the upgrade could be accomplished in a phased sequence of short (six week) shutdowns.
High Resolving Power Applications.A scientific area that has benefited enormously from the availability of high brightness sources is the physics of complex materials studied by photoemission with high energy and high momentum resolution. Improvement in the energy resolution from 50 meV to 10 meV has enabled investigation of low-energy excitations, such as the dispersion "kink" and bilayer splitting in the high T c superconductors [1,2]. Five photoemission papers have made it to the "ten most cited physics papers". Further improvement in resolution down to the meV range will provide even sharper experimental incisiveness for the understandin...