Morgan & Claypool Synchrotron Radiation: An Everyday Application of Special Relativity (IOP Concise Physics)

Synchrotron radiation is the name given to the radiation which occurs when charged particles are accelerated in a curved path or orbit. Classically, any charged particle which moves in a curved path or is accelerated in a straight-line path will emit electromagnetic radiation. Various names are given to this radiation in different contexts. Thus circular particle accelerators are called synchrotrons, this is where charged particles are accelerated to very high speeds and the radiation is referred to as synchrotron radiation.Suitable for a summer short course or one term lecture series this text introduces the subject, starting with some historical background then covering basic concepts such as flux, intensity, brilliance, emittance and Liouville's theorem. The book then covers the properties of synchrotron radiation, insertion devices, beamlines and monochromators before finishing with an introduction to free electron lasers and an overview of the most common techniques and applications of this technology. About the Author The author is physics professor at Uppsala University. Most of his research is based on spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation, and especially, he has been engaged in method development related to resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering (RIXS). The new synchrotrons allow for substantial refinement of RIXS techniques, which promises progress in fields ranging from fundamental atomic and molecular physics, over electrochemistry and pharmaceutics, to magnetism and correlated-electron systems. Several advanced RIXS facilities are presently being built at the new synchrotrons, and the author is spokesperson for the VERITAS beamline at the MAX IV laboratory. In addition, the author investigates the prospects of time-resolved and non-linear inelastic x-ray scattering at free-electron lasers. His scientific focus is on ultrafast electron dynamics in free molecules, and the coupling between, spin, orbital, and nuclear degrees of freedom in general. The author is teaching basic mechanics and optics on the bachelor level at Uppsala University, and he has the responsibility for the master-level course in synchrotron radiation.