Research at SRC

The science conducted at SRC is enabled by an electron storage ring, nicknamed Aladdin, and spans a diverse array of research genres, including:

• Superconductors
• Low-dimensional solids
• Quantum confinement
• Geology and environmental science
• Bioscience (e.g., microanalysis of cells and tissues as part of disease research such as brain cancer and Alzheimer's disease)
• Cutting-edge exploration of nanotechnology
• …and more…

Of particular interest recently is a world-class, one-of-a-kind, infrared beamline, called IRENI, which has untold applications for bioscience and chemical analysis. To learn more about IRENI, see here.

Researchers are welcomed to SRC from around the world. Those interested apply for time at the facility, are selected in a competitive review process, and are granted what’s known as “beamtime”, or time on a research station on the Aladdin ring. Unique to SRC, beamtime is issued in a three-week block of time—called a “quantum” at SRC—on one of the 28 “beamlines”.

The Aladdin storage ring, which is 292 feet in circumference, is "lit" 24 hours a day, five days a week. The facility is located in a rural location surrounded mainly by farms, 15 miles south of the main University of Wisconsin—Madison campus. There is a dormitory-style guesthouse about a mile away where visiting researchers can rent rooms.

Visiting researchers—called “Users”— come to SRC with their own funding support for travel, experimental equipment, lodging, etc.

To read a sampling of the science done at SRC, see these summaries of recent highlights from research of the past few years here.