Particle accelerators have come a long way since Ernest Orlando Lawrence invented the cyclotron and founded the laboratory that now bears his name. Today they are indispensable tools of both basic research and applications. Whether meters or tens of kilometers in scale, accelerators embody state-of-the-art physics and engineering, and in many cases are upgraded repeatedly through their long working lifetimes.
The Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division uses Lawrence’s central legacy—interdisciplinary teamwork focused on the needs of science and the nation—to develop and upgrade these accelerators and their enabling technologies. Some areas of expertise in ATAP include
- Synchrotron light sources based on storage rings like LBNL’s Advanced Light Source and its proposed upgrade, and on free-electron lasers like the Linac Coherent Light Source-II project at SLAC.
- Advanced magnetic systems for accelerators and many spinoff uses, developed by the Berkeley Center for Magnet Technology.
- Plasma accelerators. This new approach, being developed at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator Center (BELLA), holds the promise of greatly reducing the size and cost of accelerators, as well as advancements in laser technology that will be significant in their own right.
- Applications of ion-beam technology for a wide range of scientific and industrial uses, as well as a unique user facility for high-energy-density physics, a spinoff of our efforts in fusion science.
- Theory and computer simulation; the latter in particular takes advantage of LBNL resources in supercomputing and applied mathematics.
ATAP welcomes collaboration and partnership, and invites you to learn more by visiting http://atap.lbl.gov