SOLEIL, an acronym for “Optimized Light Source of Intermediate Energy to LURE,” is a research center located on the Plate au de Saclay in Saint Aubin, Essonne. More concretely, it is a particle (electron) accelerator that produces the synchrotron radiation, an extremely powerful light that permits exploration of inert or living matter..

SOLEIL is a source of light endowed with extra ordinary properties, necessary for the scientific community:

• high brilliance: 10,000 times brighterthan sunlight
• a wide spectral range: frominfrared (a few μeV) to hard X-rays (100 keV)
• light polarisation: linear, circular, etc.
• pulsed light.

It provides new perspectives in the study of matter with a resolution down to millionths of meters and a sensitivity to all types of materials.

SOLEIL covers fundamentalresearch needs in physics, chemistry, material sciences, life sciences (notably in the crystallography of biological macromolecules), earth sciences, and atmospheric sciences. It offers the use of a wide range of spectroscopic methods from infrared to X-rays, and structural methods such as X-ray diffraction and diffusion.

In appliedresearch, SOLEIL can beused in many various fields such as pharmacy, medicine, chemistry, petrochemistry, environment, nuclear energy, and the automobile industry, as well as nanotechnologies, micromechanics and microelectronics, and more...