Taiwan Photon Source (TPS) Inauguration Ceremony, hosted by President Ying-Jeou Ma, was held on the morning of January 25, 2015, at the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Just a few weeks earlier, the TPS has succeeded in emitting its first synchrotron light and scored the success of its commissioning process. Five of its 7 end stations in phase I are scheduled to complete by the end of this year and to be available for users at the beginning of next year.
President Ma regarded the completion of the TPS, which was designed and constructed domestically, as national pride. Such achievement represents Taiwan’s capability in advanced accelerator technology and construction, and it is a truly glorious accomplishment of Taiwan.
“TPS opens up tremendous possibilities for Taiwan’s key research and development sectors spanning from medical to nano devices, as well as pharmaceuticals and semiconductors,” President Ma said. “The project will also enhance the fundamental and multidisciplinary research capabilities of the country’s academia and foster next-generation talents.”
Acting Minister Yi-Bing Lin of Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology noted that the TPS is the major technological infrastructure construction supported by our country. He remarked how light had revolutionized our lives historically, and the TPS marks a different age to come. The Taiwanese scientists have so far achieved a significant milestone in the accelerator construction. Once the beamlines and end stations are completed, more researchers will be able to conduct world-class research in many scientific fields with the super-bright X-rays generated by the TPS.
In the early afternoon of the last day of 2014, the TPS delivered its first synchrotron light. This light source of 518 meters in circumference that stores electron beams of 3 GeV energy is the largest experimental facility for multi-discipline cutting-edge research in Taiwan. The decision of proposing the TPS construction project to Taiwanese government was first made in 2004. The project finally came true after ten years of efforts. The TPS aims to be one of the world's brightest synchrotron X-ray sources for new scientific research opportunities. It will be applied broadly to diverse fields such as material science, biology, medicine, physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, geology, archeology, environmental science, energy science, nanoelectronics, micromachining, and nanotechnology, enhancing Taiwan’s academic competitiveness, and assisting the high-tech industries in improving R&D capabilities.
The commissioning of the TPS was proved successful and preceded at a speedy pace. The electron beam energy of the TPS circulating in the storage ring has reached the design value of 3 GeV, and the stored beam current has achieved 100 mA as of early-February, creating the world record for the fastest commissioning for an advanced accelerator light source. It indicates that the design of accelerator systems, quality control for subsystems, alignment for all components, integrated diagnostics and control systems, and various types of magnet have reached the world upmost standard, resulting in the speedy commissioning in the booster ring and the storage ring.
As the TPS is 100,000 times brighter in the X-ray region than the Taiwan Light Source, the country’s first synchrotron accelerator that was made available to users in 1993, the more powerful TPS will create unprecedented scientific research opportunities and will open the door to new scientific explorations.