China has achieved a milestone by completing The Dalian Coherent Light Source project and will now be able to offer its researchers a dedicated source of high energy protons. The newly developed machine is fully equipped to generate 140 trillion photons per laser pulse in just one picosecond.
The machine has been developed jointly by Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. The ambitious project cost close to 20 million USD.
The newly developed Free Electron Laser will help in analysing various physical and chemical processes at a molecular level.
China's completion of a Free Electron Laser (FEL) research facility is extremely important as this is the first of its kind facility that is able to offer a specific range of short-wavelength light known as vacuum ultraviolet.
The existing FEL's in the world are only able to provide hard x-ray like beams that have adverse effects which include accidental break-up of the molecules. These problems inhibit further analysis of the molecules. Also, most of these FEL machines are located in Europe.
FEL pulses are going to be used to analyse biomolecules in gasses. It is expected that the machine will be made available for use in a period of two years, as reported on Chinatopix.
One possible use of this FEL facility could be the analysis of the smog known to cloud the cities of China. Science Mag further elaborates that the rays could be used to analyse how noxious aerosols are formed in the atmosphere.
Alec Wodtke, a physical chemist at the University of Göttingen in Germany, is in talks with Chinese Academy of Sciences's (CAS's) to allow scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen to work with the new light source. His project will help analyse the gaps in the FEL facilities.
China is also reported to be working on developing more of such facilities that will helps scientists undertake more complex research projects. Next on the list for the Shanghai Institute in China seems to be developing its own hard x-ray FEL.