China one step closer to shining Earth’s brightest light on the atomic world
- Scientists breathe a sigh of relief at the installation of an electron gun at the ambitious Heps facility on the outskirts of Beijing
- Project has been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic and US hi-tech sanctions
China has moved one step closer to generating the brightest X-ray on Earth with the installation of an electron gun at a hi-tech facility on the outskirts of the capital on Monday, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
The gun was mounted at the High Energy Photon Source (Heps) centre in Huairou district, a 5 billion yuan (US$773 million) project that is expected to be completed in 2025.
The Heps facility, also known as the “light of hope”, will use new technology to accelerate light particles, or photons, in a massive tube and then focus them on a point to create the world’s smallest, brightest spot.
Researchers involved in the project said the experiment would shine light on some of the secrets of the atomic world, potentially leading to discoveries in sectors ranging from materials technology to medical science.
For example, the light could be used on turbo jet engine blades or silicon chips to help improve products, they said.
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Construction started on Heps in 2019 and about 70 per cent of the work has been completed, according to state media.
The main structure of the facility is a 1.4km-long tube big enough to house 20 football fields. Powerful magnets and other devices will accelerate the photons inside the tube.
But the light beam must remain extremely stable and focused. Even vibrations as light as a jog in the park could make the light scatter and blur the image.
The researchers said they had come up with some new engineering solutions to isolate the massive tube from external disturbances.
A physicist involved in the project said the construction was delayed for several months because of the Covid-19 pandemic, adding pressure on a project team that was already struggling to meet the 2025 deadline.
China has been under pressure to build most of the components in the large facility at home because of US sanctions on Chinese hi-tech sectors. The scientists also had to spend time explaining to residents and officials why the powerful X-ray factory would not produce harmful radiation.
“There are some doubts overseas about our goals, which are a bit ambitious indeed,” the researcher said, declining to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
“The timely installation of the electric gun is a sign of some relief.”
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Pan Weimin, chief scientist of the project, told People’s Daily in March that they had encountered many unexpected challenges, but meeting the deadline “should not be a problem”.
“The shape of the high-energy light source is designed in the shape of a magnifying glass,” Pan was quoted as saying.
“It means a ‘weapon for exploring the microscopic world’.”
Heps is expected to outperform older facilities such as the Advanced Photon Source in the United States, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France and SPring-8 in Japan with X-ray beams hundreds of times brighter, according to the Beijing-based Institute of High Energy Physics, its owner.
The institute said the new facility would “increase China’s international influence”.
China does not have a high energy source of light yet.
There are more than 50 major artificial light sources around the world, but only four can generate high-energy light.
Several new facilities have been built in China in recent years, including light sources in Shanghai and Hefei of eastern Anhui province, but their light beams fell in the lower-to-middle energy range. They could not produce crystal-clear images with nanometre resolution for tiny objects such as viruses, molecules or atoms.
