As one of the pioneer synchrotron radiation laboratories that was built more than twenty years ago, CHESS has played a significant role in the development of x-ray technology.
The scientists and engineers at CHESS and in the accelerator physics and superconducting radio-frequency groups are designing, building, and testing novel state-of-the-art technologies that will push forward the capabilities for x-ray science in all disciplines.
A recent collaboration with KYMA resulted in the design and fabrication of custom-made compact undulators (CCU) that are only 150 cm long and do not need an expensive high-precision mechanical frame. Two CCU are installed in the West flare, currently feeding both the A-line and G-line experimental stations. These undulators made CHESS the 5th 3rd generation (undulator operations) high-energy storage ring (energy of 5.3 GeV) synchrotron in the world. A variety of optics options are employed at CHESS: diamond monochromators for undulator beamlines, high-resolution Si monochromators for spectroscopy, as well as wide-bandpass multilayers to high-flux experiments. In addition to commercially-sourced x-ray detectors, the fabrication and prototyping of new advanced detectors has always been a strength of CHESS. X-ray optics are an area where CHESS excels. CHESS has an in-house glass drawing tower to fabricate custom designs of capillary x-ray optics, many with focal spots below 10 microns. For additional focusing possibilities, spoked channel arrays, lithographically fabricated by etching silicon to form channels with a fan-shape arrangement, are being developed at CHESS to continue to improve the range and quality of experiments possible at the beamlines.