VR 360° visit of SOLEIL

Visit SOLEIL ... without moving!

We invite you to discover the new immersive video shot at SOLEIL. Follow our guide and enter the tunnels of the accelerators, the control room, the hall of the synchrotron or the hutches of a beamline, always with the possibility to look all around you, 360 °.
A bit more than five minutes of SOLEIL’s presentation, to make you want to know more, and why not to come and see the synchrotron "in real" - however, if you come, we can not make you fly over our site as in the video…
 
Good virtual tour!

Audio transcription

Outside
Welcome to this 360 visit of SOLEIL Synchrotron, one of the largest scientific research instruments in France.
To help you keep track of our location, you will always find a map of the site at your feet. The spot we’re in is enlightened. Do you see that? Then off we go!

Nearby the Synchrotron building
This site takes its name from the synchrotron machine, housed by this building behind me. It is there that research activities take place.
Here is a simplified schematic of the synchrotron.
It includes an electron source, a linear accelerator, linked to a first ring called the booster ring, which is also linked to a larger ring of 354 meters in circumference, called the storage ring.
29 laboratories are located on its periphery. 
These are the beamlines, so called because they gather the synchrotron light produced by the electrons circulating inside the storage ring.
At the center of the building there is the control room. Let us go and have a look.

Control Room
This is the control room, active 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. The operators pilot the whole accelerating process, including the storage ring. They also monitor the quality of the light which is produced by the electrons turning inside the storage ring. This light is the tool researchers use to probe and understand matter. 
Now let us go to the LINAC where the electrons are produced.

LINAC
Here we are in the LINAC, the linear accelerator. Thanks to an electrical voltage and a high temperature, electrons are torn out of a metallic tip.
Then, through this tube, and only after a few meters, they reach a speed already close to the speed of light.
At the end of the linear accelerator, they enter the booster ring. 

BOOSTER
We are now at the end of the linear accelerator, at the point where it reaches the booster ring. This is a ring in which electrons will make a few hundred thousand laps. Their energy and speed increase. When they reach the right energy, they are injected in the storage ring.

Storage Ring
Here we are in the storage ring. The electrons will turn here for days on end. The ring is made of alternating bends and straight sections.
At each turn provoked by a bending magnet, the electrons emit a radiation. This is the synchrotron radiation, a ray of light as thin a human hair. 
It goes straight to one of the beamlines, located beyond this concrete wall, just behind you. This wall is more than a meter thick.
Now let us see what happens beyond the wall. 

Experimental hall
At SOLEIL, the light produced by the electrons cover infrared radiation, visible light, UV-light and X-rays. 
The 29 beamlines of SOLEIL are all different. They work independently of each other. Each one is specialized in a range of energy and a matter analysis technique. 

Optical hutch of the CRISTAL beamline
Here we are in an optical hutch, the first part of a beamline. Inside here, a system of mirrors enables to select a given wavelength, and gives the right shape to the light beam.

Experimental hutch of the CRISTAL beamline
In a beamline, after the optical hutch, you will find an experimental hutch. Here, the studied sampled is placed in the synchrotron light. It is scrutinized with various instruments. Its chemical or physical characteristics, or others are thus revealed, but also its structure, even at the atom scale.

Living hutch of the CRISTAL beamline
Here, in the living hutch of the beamline, researchers pilot the data recording, data that will be analysed later. 
At SOLEIL, about 2500 researchers come every year to lead more than 1000 experiments, whether in fundamental or applied research. They come with questions, and leave with answers, and often new questions! This is how science moves forward!

Roof of the Synchrotron building
Here, we are on the roof of the SOLEIL Synchrotron, our 360 visit is coming to an end. To find out more about us, please visit our website, or come and visit. Thank you and see you soon!