urrent Status of the 3rd Generation Korean Synchrotron Light Source, PLS-II

The 3 generation synchrotron light source, or synchrotron radiation facility, provides very intense and bright x-rays. In addition, it provides x-rays with wide spectral range, easy control of polarization (linear, circular, and elliptical polarization), and pulse trains (∼30 ps wide pulses, 2 ns pulse-to-pulse separation). By utilizing such properties, both cutting-edge instrumentation and techniques have been developed and are under development competitively in order to unveil new science and technology. The 3 generation Korean synchrotron light source, PLS-II (Pohang light source II), is a national facility, being utilized by ∼5,000 users per year. It opened in 1995 with 2 bending magnet beamlines (BLs). In 2011, the light source was upgraded from PLS to PLS-II in order to offer more intense and bright x-rays having 20 insertion device ports. Now, 34 BLs are operational at 3 GeV, 400 mA top-up mode, and various kinds of probing techniques have been equipped along with the 34 BLs for competitive investigation of various kinds of materials system. Recently, we have installed micro-MX (macro-molecular or protein crystallography) and IRS (infrared spectroscopy) BLs, have started construction of ambient-pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AP-XPS) and time-resolved x-ray science (TR-XRS) BLs. Status of the PLS-II BLs and current issues (having BLs for fragment-based drug design and high-energy x-ray science) are addressed in the manuscript, followed by a brief summary of Asian synchrotron radiation facilities.