Speaker
Description
The scientific questions addressed at synchrotron facilities are becoming increasingly complex, requiring experiments with higher spatial and temporal resolution, greater sensitivity, and the ability to probe materials under realistic operating conditions. ALBA II, the upgrade of the Spanish synchrotron light source, has been conceived to meet these emerging challenges by providing a substantial increase in source brightness, coherence, and beam stability.
Rather than representing a simple performance upgrade, ALBA II will enable a new generation of experiments that are currently difficult or impossible to perform. The enhanced capabilities will facilitate high-resolution imaging and diffraction, faster in situ and operando studies, multimodal approaches combining complementary techniques, and the investigation of increasingly weak or heterogeneous systems.
This contribution will present an overview of ALBA II from the perspective of the scientific opportunities it will create across multiple research fields, with particular emphasis on advanced scattering and diffraction techniques for soft matter and functional materials. Selected examples will illustrate how the upgraded source will allow researchers to address previously inaccessible scientific questions, highlighting the transition from improved instrumentation to genuinely new experimental capabilities.
Finally, the complementary roles of diffraction-limited synchrotron sources and X-ray free-electron lasers will be discussed, emphasizing how ALBA II will strengthen the experimental ecosystem by providing new opportunities for both standalone synchrotron experiments and XFEL-related research.
