As a national user facility the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource invites scientists from all over the world to use our intense X-ray beam and world-class instruments for their experiments.

SSRL Celebrates 50 Years!

Register to attend the Joint SSRL/LCLS Annual Users' Meeting at SLAC, September 25-29, 2023

Visualizing the Mechanism of an Ancient Pathway in the Carbon Cycle

Crystallography Confirms De Novo Protein Binding Modes and Hotspots

Structural Evidence that Rodents Facilitated the Evolution of the SARS-COV-2 Omicron Variant

Nanoglues for Robust Atomically Dispersed Catalysts

How Epstein-Barr Virus Infection Triggers Multiple Sclerosis

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SSRL Operations Update

Follow the SSRL SPEAR status and beam line schedule for August-September. Operations in FY2023 were impacted by an electrical incident which occurred on the SLAC site in late December and a site-wide safety stand down which ensued to review and improve operating procedures across the site - with particular emphasis on hazardous energy (CoHE) protocols and lock-out-tag-out (LOTO) restrictions. The situation was further compounded by a SPEAR3 injector transformer failure on January 11. We realize that this unexpected outage has had significant impact on our user community, and we sincerely appreciate your patience.

Supporting the User Community

Visiting scientists ("users") from universities, industries and laboratories around the world use SSRL experimental facilities to conduct experiments across a broad range of scientific, engineering, and environmental disciplines.

Our Experimental Facilities

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Users conduct experiments at SSRL's approximately 30 experimental stations, which utilize extremely bright x-rays produced by the SPEAR3 storage ring. SSRL provides access to beam lines, instrumentation, ancillary equipment supported by dedicated staff scientists and technicians.

Science at SSRL

SSRL's extremely bright x-rays are used by scientists to view the nanoworld, leading to cutting-edge research in drug discovery, energy efficiency and supply, environmental remediation (toxic waste cleanup), electronics, telecommunications and manufacturing.