The Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is undergoing a historic upgrade targeted for completion in 2029. The multi-year project aims to deliver soft X-rays at least 100 times brighter than current limits, providing researchers with unmatched experimental capabilities for quantum materials science and microelectronics research.
Scientists around the globe rely on the focused beams of light generated by the Advanced Light Source synchrotron to study molecules and materials with atomic precision — yielding fundamental insights into fields ranging from physics to biology and enabling the development of new technologies in microelectronics, energy storage, pharmaceuticals, catalysis, quantum computing, and more. Operating since 1993 as a DOE Office of Science user facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the nation’s top destination for soft X-ray science as well as a leading facility for ultraviolet, infrared, and hard X-ray wavelengths has been cited in more than 18,000 papers, including foundational work for five Nobel prizes. After 30 years of continuous operation and enhancements, however, the facility has reached its performance limits.
To prepare for an increasingly quantum-driven technological future, the facility is leveling up using new advances in light source technology to ensure that DOE scientists and our collaborators have access to unmatched experimental capabilities for the next era of discovery. The upgrade has been underway for nearly a decade and has hit major milestones, with teams making great progress toward its targeted completion in 2029.
Unlocking Brighter Beams and Higher Coherence
As electronics approach the physical and performance limits of traditional silicon-based devices, researchers face a growing urgency to accelerate fundamental studies of quantum materials. These are solids whose electrons interact so strongly that entirely new collective behaviors such as superconductivity, exotic magnetism, and other phenomena emerge, defying the predictions of conventional theory.
The historic upgrade will produce more coherent (laser-like) beams of light that are orders of magnitude brighter than today. Once the overhaul is complete, the ALS will deliver beams of soft X-rays that are more focused and at least 100-times brighter than the current ALS. This fantastically versatile type of light allows scientists to probe the chemical, magnetic, and electronic properties of samples, revealing how electrons in materials behave and how chemical reactions unfold in real time. By pointing more light into a smaller area and improving how photons within the beams are organized — a property called coherence — the upgraded facility will provide more detailed and precise data and significantly enhance its ability to study changes in matter.
This capability, combined with anticipated improvements in detectors, will allow researchers to directly measure defects and observe exotic quantum states in situ as they evolve within a billionth of a second at the nanoscale.
Advancing Superconductivity and Quantum Materials Research
Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy instruments at the ALS have been pivotal in advancing scientists’ understanding of superconductivity, a quantum mechanical property that allows certain materials to conduct electricity with zero or minimal loss, by simultaneously mapping both the energy and momentum of electrons to reveal the full electronic band structure that governs a material’s properties.
“ALS-U is a very important undertaking for the U.S. synchrotron research community. [It] will enable new and exciting experiments that will make a big difference in the kinds of research that we do in the field of quantum materials and beyond.” Riccardo Comin, associate professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Photo: LBL
Tools housed in MAESTRO, the Microscopic and Electronic STRucture Observatory instrument at the ALS, focus the X-ray beam to a spot as small as 10 micrometers — about one-tenth the width of a human hair — enabling measurements on tiny samples or specific regions of a material. In 2022, Riccardo Comin, associate professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his team used the MAESTRO ARPES instruments at the ALS to identify and measure the velocities of electrons from which superconductivity emerges in a Kagome metal, an emerging quantum material that could serve as a platform for discovering other quantum materials and potentially lead to a new class of superconductors, new approaches to quantum computing, and other quantum technologies.
“MAESTRO at the Advanced Light Source is one of the leading ARPES tools in the world. It is an important tool for studying quantum materials, because it gives you a snapshot of where the electrons are on an energy spectrum.” Riccardo Comin, associate professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The ALS Upgrade will enable X-ray beams focused to less than 25 nanometers — small enough to resolve nanoscale variations in quantum materials that are invisible to current instruments.
Targeting Completion by 2029
The multi-year modernization effort represents a critical investment in the infrastructure required for next-generation electronics, information technologies, and quantum computers. With project teams maintaining steady progress toward the targeted completion in 2029, the scientific community prepares for an era where world-leading X-ray tools and experts can push the boundaries of quantum materials research further by collecting data with far greater detail than has been possible before.
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