Skip to main content

With a brand-new generation of high-energy synchrotron, the ESRF is the world's brightest synchrotron light source and a centre of excellence for fundamental and innovation-driven research in condensed and living matter science. Located in Grenoble, France, the European Synchrotron owes its success to the international cooperation of 19 partner countries.

 

The ESRF - The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility - is the most intense source of synchrotron-generated light, producing X-rays 100 billion times brighter than the X-rays used in hospitals. These X-rays, endowed with exceptional properties, are produced at the ESRF by the high energy electrons that race around the storage ring, a circular tunnel measuring 844 metres in circumference.
Each year, more than 9000 scientists from around the world come to Grenoble, to “beamlines”, each equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Thanks to the brilliance and quality of its X-rays, the ESRF functions like a "super-microscope" which "films" the position and motion of atoms in condensed and living matter, and reveals the structure of matter in all its beauty and complexity. It provides unrivalled opportunities for scientists in the exploration of materials and living matter in many fields: chemistry, material physics, archaeology and cultural heritage, structural biology and medical applications, environmental sciences, information science and nanotechnologies.

From making history in 1988 as the world's first third-generation synchrotron, to launching the first of a new generation of high-energy light source in 2020, the force of the ESRF is its capacity to innovate, pushing technology to its limits and seeking ever-higher performances in order to provide scientists with state-of-the-art instruments. ESRF-Extremely Brilliant Source (EBS) improves X-ray performances of brilliance and coherence by a factor of 100 compared to the previous source. Based on an award-winning lattice design, ESRF-EBS paves the way for a new standard of synchrotrons around the world.

11-02-2025

Aram Bugaev wins the ESRF Young Scientist Award 2025

Read more
10-02-2025

The ESRF User Meeting 2025 kicks off

Read more
07-02-2025

First ID14 results analyse potential anticancer complex

Read more

Connect with us

Follow us on

Meet the 'Humans of ESRF'

 

Visit the blog