China is set to make further breakthroughs in materials science and engineering, as it earmarks 4.8 billion yuan for the construction of the High-Energy Photon Source (HEPS). The facility will be built based on a six-year plan starting late-2018.
As part of China's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), the new facility is slated to become the country's fourth-generation synchrotron radiation facility. It can generate 70 times more brightness compared to the National Synchrotron Light Source II, in the U.S., currently among the most powerful of its kind.
Synchrotron radiation facilities can generate X-rays through the production of highly energetic electrons, enabling them to detect atomic structures of practically any kind of material they inspect. Such can revolutionize efforts in China to advance developments in materials science and engineering.
A leader in synchrotron radiation technology, China has endeavored in developing synchrotron radiation facilities in three phases: first, the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, second, the Hefei Light Source, and third, the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), the Global Times reported.
The SSRF has been useful for investigating cerebrovascular diseases as well as tumors, enabling scientists to have a stronger foundation for dealing with those diseases. Currently, the facility is the fourth in the world in terms of electron beam energy, behind counterparts in Japan, U.S. and EU.
China's synchrotron radiation facilities are just part of the total of 50 worldwide. Constant usage of those facilities can lead to further enhancements in materials science and engineering as well as in healthcare, due to their usefulness to diagnose and treat tumors and cerebrovascular diseases.
In an earlier report by Yibada, China has developed a rather-similar breakthrough in the form of the Dalian Coherent Light Source (DCLS). Developed by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the DCLS is a free electron laser (FEL) light source useful for atom, molecule, and cluster detection.