A Revolutionary Terahertz Source- Circle

My note: This is very interesting, and is linked on Michael C. Martin's homepage, http://www.lbl.gov/mmartin/
I am also including a video on the blog discussing some of the other "cutting edge work" being performed with ALS, near infra-red spectroscopy at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory

A Revolutionary THz Source

http://CIRCE.lbl.gov/

We are proposing a small electron storage ring dedicated to the production of coherent far-infrared and THz radiation at the ALS. We have been exploring coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) and have determined conclusively that such a machine is entirely feasible. CIRCE (Coherent InfraRed CEnter) will be a revolutionarysource for a traditionally difficult spectral region at the border between optics and electronics, namely the THz-gap.

Most synchrotron light sources require a large floor space outside the main ring to accommodate long x-ray beamlines. However, IR beamlines require relatively little space and prefer to be located as close to the source as possible. Given the layout of the ALS facility as shown above, the ideal location for an IR ring is on top of the booster shielding. The minimum circumference of a ring that fits on the existing shielding is about 65 m. Full energy injection to the ring can be done from the booster without interfering with injection to the main ring, even under continuous top-off operation.



Coherent Synchrotron Radiation will allow CIRCE to produce a very high flux in this THz-gap frequency region. The many orders of magnitude increase in far-IR intensity is the basis of our project and enables new kinds of science.