The Advanced Light Source

The Advanced Light Source (ALS), a national user facility currently under construction at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), is a third-generation synchrotron light source designed to produce extremely bright beams of synchrotron radiation in the energy range from a few eV to 10 keV. The design is based on a 1--1.9-GeV electron storage ring (optimized at 1.5 GeV), and utilizes special magnets, known as undulators and wigglers (collectively referred to as insertion devices), to generate the radiation. The facility is scheduled to begin operating in April 1993. In this paper we describe the progress in the design, construction, and commissioning of the accelerator systems, insertion devices, and beamlines. Companion presentations at this conference give more detail of specific components in the ALS, and describe the activities towards establishing an exciting user program. 3 figs., 2 tabs