Experience with ray-tracing simulations at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

Manuel Sánchez del Río

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, BP 220, F-38043 Grenoble Cedex 9 (France)

(Presented on 18 October 1995)

The ESRF is the first operational third-generation synchrotron radiation hard-x-ray source. Since the
beginning of its construction (1988), the ray-tracing technique proved to be an essential computer
tool for the beamline optics design. The optical systems of most beamlines have been simulated by
ray tracing in order to optimize the optics, fully understand their properties, and check if operation
performances were as expected. In this paper, a short compilation of the experience with ray tracing
and optics simulation codes at the ESRF, as well as some other in-house developments, is
presented. 

© 1996 American Institute of Physics.