diamond light source diamond is the uk s national synchrotron science facility located at the harwell science and innovation campus in oxfordshire . its purpose is to produce intense beams of light whose special characteristics are useful in many areas of scientific research . in particular it can be used to investigate the structure and properties of a wide range of materials from proteins to provide information for designing new and better drugs and engineering components such as a fan blade from an aero engine 1 to conservation of archeological artifacts for example henry viii s flagship the mary rose 2 3 . contents 1 design construction and finance 2 the synchrotron 3 beamlines 4 case studies 5 background 6 films animations and podcasts 7 see also 8 references 9 external links design construction and finance edit the diamond light source building following early work during the 1990s a final design study was completed in 2001 the so called green book by scientists at daresbury laboratory ; 4 construction then began following the creation of the operating company diamond light source ltd. diamond was built at chilton near didcot in oxfordshire uk next to the rutherford appleton laboratory operated by the science and technology facilities council stfc . it produced its first user beam towards the end of january 2007 and was formally opened by queen elizabeth ii on 19 october 2007 . 5 the facility is operated by diamond light source ltd 6 a joint venture company established in march 2002 . the company receives 86 % of its funding from the uk government via the stfc and 14 % from the wellcome trust . diamond cost 260m to build which covered the cost of the synchrotron building the accelerators inside it the first seven experimental stations beamlines and the adjacent office block diamond house . costain ltd constructed the building and the synchrotron hall . significant construction achievements to note i the project was completed on time and on budget ; ii the construction of diamond was completed with one of the lowest accident rates of a mega project ever completed in the uk . over 1.4 million man hours were completed during the peak of construction without a single recordable accident . the synchrotron edit diamond generates synchrotron light at wavelengths ranging from x rays to the far infrared . this is also known as synchrotron radiation and is the electromagnetic radiation emitted by charged particles travelling near the speed of light . it is used in a huge variety of experiments to study the structure and behaviour of many different types of matter . the particles diamond uses are electrons travelling at an energy of 3 gev 7 round a 561.6 m circumference storage ring . the ring is not circular but is shaped as a forty eight sided polygon using a double bend achromat magnet configuration in which two bending magnets are placed in each of 24 cells . as the electrons pass through specially designed magnets at each vertex their sudden change of direction causes them to emit an exceptionally bright beam of electro magnetic radiation . this is the synchrotron light used for experiments . the electrons reach this high energy via a series of pre accelerator stages before being injected into the 3 gev storage ring an electron gun 90 kev a 100 mev linear accelerator a 100 mev 3 gev booster synchrotron 158 m in circumference . the diamond synchrotron is housed in a silver toroidal building of 738m in circumference covering an area in excess of 43 300 square metres or the area of over six football pitches . this contains the storage ring and a number of beamlines 8 with the linear accelerator and booster synchrotron housed in the centre of the ring . these beamlines are the experimental stations where the synchrotron light s interaction with matter is used for research purposes . seven phase i beamlines were available when diamond became operational in 2007 with another fifteen phase ii completed over the period 2007 2012 . as of january 2013 there were 22 in operation . the government and the wellcome trust have now agreed to fund phase iii of diamond which will increase the number of operational beamlines to 32 by 2017 . the seven beamlines which were available when diamond first became operational in january 2007 were extreme conditions beamline for studying materials under intense temperatures and pressures beamline i15 . materials and magnetism beamline set up to probe electronic and magnetic materials at the atomic level beamline i16 . three macromolecular crystallography beamlines for decoding the structure of complex biological samples such as proteins beamlines i02 i03 and i04 . microfocus spectroscopy beamline able to map the chemical make up of complex materials such as moon rocks and geological samples beamline i18 . nanoscience beamline capable of imaging structures and devices at the scale of a few nanometres millionths of a millimetre beamline i06 . phase iii of diamond provides for the design procurement construction and commissioning of an additional 10 beamlines to complement those in phases i and ii of diamond . they will become operational over the period 2013 2017 18 . diamond is intended ultimately to host up to forty beamlines supporting the life physical and environmental sciences . in 2015 diamond opened the electron bio imaging centre ebic a uk national facility providing instruments and expertise in the field of cryo electron microscopy . currently an fei titan krios microscope i is operation within the experimental hall at diamond . in the future ebic will be located within a dedicated building adjacent to the synchrotron with completion due in 2016 . experimental techniques available at this facility include single particle analysis of biological macromolecules cellular tomography and electron crystallography . beamlines edit phase i the seven phase i beamlines became operational in january 2007 extreme conditions beamline i15 for studying materials under intense temperatures and pressures . materials and magnetism beamline i16 to probe the electronic and magnetic properties of materials at the atomic level . three macromolecular crystallography beamlines i02 i03 & i04 for understanding the structure of complex biological samples including proteins . microfocus spectroscopy beamline i18 able to map the chemical composition of complex materials such as moon rocks and geological samples . nanoscience beamline i06 capable of imaging structures and devices at a few millionths of a millimetre . phase ii non crystalline diffraction interdisciplinary beamline i22 for studying large complex structures including living organisms polymers and colloids . test beamline on a bending magnet b16 for testing new developments in optics detectors and research techniques . small molecule single crystal diffraction high intensity beamline i19 for determining the structure of small molecule crystalline materials such as new catalysts and smart electronic materials . high resolution powder diffraction beamline i11 specialising in investigating the structure of complex materials including high temperature semiconductors and fullerenes . microfocus macromolecular crystallography beamline i24 for studying the relationship between the structure of large macromolecules and their function within living organisms . circular dichroism beamline b23 for the life sciences and chemistry able to observe structural functional and dynamic interactions in materials such as proteins nucleic acids and chiral molecules . joint engineering environmental and processing jeep beamline i12 providing a multi purpose facility for high energy diffraction and imaging of engineering components and materials under real conditions . fixed wavelength monochromatic mx station i04 1 sharing straight i04 with one of the year one macromolecular crystallography beamlines independent station using fixed energy light to investigate the structures of protein complexes . x ray spectroscopy xas 3 beamline i20 including a versatile x ray spectrometer for studying chemical reactions and determining physical and electronic structures to support fundamental science . surface and interface high resolution diffraction beamline i07 for investigating the structure of surfaces and interfaces under different environmental conditions including semiconductors and biological films . core exafs b18 for supporting the wide range of applications of x ray absorption spectroscopy including local structure and electronic state of active components and the study of materials including fluids crystalline and non crystalline amorphous phases & colloids solids surfaces and biomaterials . infrared microspectroscopy b22 as a powerful and versatile method of determining chemical structure bringing new levels of sensitivity and spatial resolution with subsequent impact across a wide range of life and physical sciences . beamline for advanced dichroism experiments blade i10 for the study of magnetic dichroism and magnetic structure using soft x ray resonant scattering reflection and diffraction and x ray absorption allowing a broad range of novel studies focused on the spectroscopic properties and magnetic ordering of novel nanostructured systems . x ray imaging and coherence i13 for studying the structure of micro and nano objects . the information is either acquired in direct space or by inverting diffraction data recorded in reciprocal space . dynamical studies are performed on different time and length scales with x ray photon correlation spectroscopy xpcs and pinhole based ultra small angle scattering usaxs . surface and interface structural analysis sisa i09 will combine low energy and high energy beams focused on the same sample area and will achieve advances in structural determination of surfaces and interfaces as well as in nano structures biological and complex materials research . phase iii phase iii was approved in october 2010 and will provide another 10 beamlines to become operational between 2012 and 2017 . further details on the process are available here . i05 angle resolved photo emission spectroscopy arpes . beamline i05 is a facility dedicated to the study of electronic structures by angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy . i08 soft x ray microscopy will have a range of applications including materials science earth and environmental science biological and bio medical science and scientific aspects of our cultural heritage . b21 high throughput small angle x ray scattering saxs i23 long wavelength macromolecular crystallography will be a unique facility for solving the crystallographic phase problem utilizing the small anomalous signals from sulphur or phosphorus present in native protein or rna dna crystals . b24 full field cryo transmission x ray microscope for biology will be designed specifically around the requirements associated with the imaging of biological cells . i14 a hard x ray nanoprobe for complex systems i21 inelastic x ray scattering ixs b07 versox versatile soft x ray beamline i15 1 x ray pair scattering distribution function case studies edit on 13 september 2007 scientists from cardiff university led by professor tim wess found that the diamond synchrotron could be used to discover hidden content of ancient documents by illumination without opening them penetrating layers of parchment . 9 10 in november 2010 the journal nature published an article detailing how scientists goedele maertens stephen hare & peter cherepanov from imperial college london used data collected at diamond to advance the understanding of how hiv and other retroviruses infect human or animal cells . 11 12 the findings may enable improvements in gene therapy to correct gene malfunctions . in june 2011 an international team of scientists led by professor so iwata published an article in the journal nature detailing how using diamond they had successfully solved the complex 3d structure of the human histamine h1 receptor protein . their discovery opens the way for the development of third generation anti histamines specific drugs effective against various allergies without causing adverse side effects . 13 14 background edit diamond is a uk national facility that aims at providing researchers from the uk and the world with synchrotron based techniques for a wide range of scientific applications . the name diamond was originally conceived by mike poole the originator of the diamond project and stood as an acronym meaning dipole and multipole output for the nation at daresbury . with the location of diamond now being in oxfordshire the explanation has been changed and now derives from that the fact that the light from the