They then focus the X-rays into a strong and compact beam. Just as it's easier to read under a bank of searchlights than with a pen light, researchers can make faster and more accurate measurements with the synchrotron than with traditional X-ray sources. Due to the relatively short wavelength of X-rays, scientists can probe the structure of matter at a much finer resolution than was possible with any other light source. In the synchrotron's early years, scientists primarily probed the chemical and electronic structure of compounds using X-ray crystallography and spectroscopy. SSRL still performs many of these experiments.
Physicists use spectroscopy to understand the operation of superconductors.
In the last two decades, however, applications for the synchrotron's radiation have multiplied. In TRXF, the X-rays emerging from the synchrotron are focused at a shallow angle onto the surface of a wafer. Most X-ray photons reflect off, but some collide with atoms on the wafer surface. Those atoms become excited, and, to rid themselves of their excess energy, emit new photons in all directions. This phenomenon is called fluorescence.