Welcome to the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), the ALS is a specialized synchrotron X-ray light source. Bunches of electrons are sped up through an accelerator system that guides these charged particles around a storage ring with over 40 beamlines. This generates extremely bright light for scientific research across a wide array of scientific fields, including materials sciences, biosciences, chemistry, physics, and environmental and planetary sciences. As a national user facility, the ALS is open to scientists from across the country and around the world. If you are interested in becoming an ALS user, visit the ALS User 101 page. 

Over the last three decades, the ALS has powered a remarkable string of world-leading discoveries, published in high-impact journals and underpinning the work of five Nobel Prize laureates.

The Journey to X-rays

The Upgrade

Currently a third-generation light source, the ALS is undergoing an upgrade (ALS-U) to become a fourth-generation facility. ALS-U will use state-of-the-art magnet technology to revolutionize the facility’s X-ray capabilities. This will help scientific users better understand and develop the new materials and chemical systems needed to advance U.S. energy, economic, and national security interests in the twenty-first century—securing the United States’ world scientific leadership for decades to come.

LEARN MORE ABOUT WHERE WE ARE HEADED

Our Impact by the Numbers