🇨🇳 China advances Hefei light source

China’s Hefei Advanced Light Facility in Anhui fired its first electron beam on September 20, marking a milestone for the fourth-generation light source project. The beam, generated by a new electron gun and accelerated through a 192-metre linear accelerator to 2.2 billion electron volts, moves the country closer to a “super microscope” designed to observe matter at atomic scale, according to SCMP.

HALF is designed to produce X-rays more than 100 times brighter and more coherent than third-generation sources, with the University of Science and Technology of China saying its planned brightness and stability are the highest globally. The facility is intended to support up to 35 experimental stations, including an extreme ultraviolet lithography platform relevant to advanced semiconductor manufacturing, an area constrained by US-led export controls.

Construction began in 2023 and completion is expected in 2028. Together with facilities in Beijing and Shanghai, HALF will form China’s advanced light source system across high-, medium- and low-energy ranges.

#China

@asianomics