European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

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The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility is a joint research facility supported by 18 European countries situated in Grenoble, France. The ESRF operates the most powerful synchrotron radiation source in Europe, and is generally considered to be a world leading research facility. The ESRF has an annual budget of around 74 million euros, employs over 600 people and is host to more than 3500 visiting scientists each year.

Research in the ESRF focuses, in large part, on the use of X-ray radiation in fields as diverse as protein crystallography, earth science, materials science and physics. Facilities such as the ESRF offer a flux, energy range and resolution unachievable with conventional (laboratory) radiation sources.

The ESRF facility consists of two main buildings: the experiment hall, containing the 844 metre circumference ring and forty tangential beamlines; and a block of laboratories, preparation suites, and offices connected to the ring by a pedestrian bridge. The linear accelerator electron gun and smaller booster ring used to bring the beam to an operating energy of 6 GeV are constructed within the main ring. Bicycles are provided for use indoors in the ring's circumferential corridor. As some of the beamlines exit the hall it is not possible to cycle continuously all the way around.

The ESRF site forms part of the "Polygone Scientifique", lying at the confluence of the Drac and Isère rivers about 1.5km from the centre of Grenoble. It is served by local bus and the Lyon airport coach, which stops at "la place de la résistance" just outside the site.

The ESRF shares its site with several other institutions including the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). The Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) has an institute just across the road.

See also

• List of Synchrotron Radiation Facilities
• European Research Area (ERA)