Alba Synchrotron

ALBA is a 3rd generation Synchrotron Light facility located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, (Barcelona), managed by the Consortium CELLS. It is a complex of electron accelerators to produce synchrotron light, which allows the visualization of the atomic structure of matter as well as the study of its properties.
ALBA currently has seven operational state-of-the-art phase-I beamlines, comprising soft and hard X-rays, which are devoted mainly to biosciences, condensed matter (magnetic and electronic properties, nanoscience) and materials science.

This large scientific infrastructure provides more than 5.000 hours of beam time per year and is available for the academic and the industrial sector, serving more than 1.000 researchers every year.

One of the main goals of ALBA synchrotron is to provide services and advice to the scientific and industrial community by offering proprietary access to the different laboratories and techniques available in the facility as well as the in-house technology developments related with our wide expertise in the field of synchrotron radiation. 

The Synchrotron light provides several advantages compared with conventional techniques such as higher brilliance or intensity (faster measurements), higher spatial resolution, lower detection/quantification limits or allowing sophisticate sample environment(s). ALBA has many synchrotron light laboratories (named beamlines) fully operational and accessible for scientific and industrial customers through proprietary access. The beamlines provide light ranging from infrared to X-ray and are covering a wide range of scientific and industrial applications, among those: Food and agriculture: Food ingredients, Toxins, Plants.

ALBA offers state of the art techniques in:

• Powder diffraction: high resolution and high-speed
• Powder microdiffraction (including high-pressure)
• Macromolecular crystallography
• Small and wide angle scattering
• X-ray absorption
• Photoemission (microscopy and near ambient pressure)
• Magnetic dichroism
• Soft X-ray reflectivity and scattering
• Full-field soft X-ray microscopy

All these different beamlines and techniques and the in-house expertise are available for the industrial and scientific community to enhance their research and development activities. The services may include mail-in, pre and post experiment support, data treatment, experimental reports, advice on synchrotron techniques, etc.

For more information on the beamlines, techniques and applications areas please, see the following link: https://www.cells.es/en/beamlines