Infrared and THz at the National Synchrotron Light Source II

The first NSLS-II beamline for infrared and THz spectroscopy recently began operations. The design incorporates features for reaching from the near-UV (~40,000 cm-1) to millimeter waves (~2 cm-1). The high brilliance synchrotron source will be used for a variety of spectroscopic techniques including microspectroscopy, magnetospectroscopy, ellipsometry and materials under extreme pressures and temperatures. Interestingly, the intrinsically short electron bunches (~15 ps rms) results in stable coherent radiation to be observed down to 5 GHz during normal operations.