History of SSRL

Based on new applications of synchrotron radiation, SSRL began in 1973 as the SSRP, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project. SSRL scientific user activities were originally attached to the SPEAR ring and were operated in in "parasitic mode" on the SPEAR high-energy physics program. SSRL was the first multi-GeV storage ring based synchrotron radiation source in the world, providing intense and stable radiation over a broad spectral range, including hard x-ray.

In the early days, experiments were done in five experimental stations which shared radiation from a few inches of curving path in one of the SPEAR dipole magnets. Each station was equipped with a monochromator to select a particular wavelength of interest to the particular experiment being pursued. Users would bring their samples and sample environments (vacuum chambers, magnets, low temperature chambers, etc.) and install them at the end of the beam line. Some users came from Stanford University, but most came from other Universities or labs.

In more than thirty years since its establishment, SSRL has changed markedly. SPEAR became fully dedicated to SSRL in 1992. SSRL operates for users about nine months of the year and about 30 experimental stations available for users from universities, private industry, government labs and foreign institutions in numerous diciplines including chemistry, biology, medicine, environmental science, materials science, and engineering as well as applied physics. The number of users and experiments conducted at SSRL continues to increase with about 2,000 scientists and 300 institutions annually benefitting from the use of SSRL facilities.