European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

Inaugurated in 1994, the ESRF is the world’s most intense x-ray source, a public center of excellence for fundamental research, also committed to applied and industrial research. Located in Grenoble, France, the ESRF is a model of international cooperation with 21 partner nations, of which 13 are Members and 8 are Scientific Associates.

The ESRF – the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility - is the most intense source of synchrotron-generated light, producing x-rays 100 billion times brighter than the x-rays used in hospitals. These x-rays, endowed with exceptional properties, are produced at the ESRF by the high energy electrons that race around the storage ring, a circular tunnel measuring 844 meters in circumference. Each year, the demand to use these x-ray beams increases and thousand of scientists from around the world come to Grenoble, to access the 43 highly specialized experimental stations, called “beamlines”, each equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Functioning like a “super-microscope”, due to the brilliance and quality of its x-rays, the ESRF reveals the structure of matter in all its beauty and complexity. It provides unrivaled opportunities for scientists in the exploration of materials and living matter in a very wide variety of fields: chemistry, material physics, archaeology and cultural heritage, structural biology and medical applications, environmental sciences, information science and nanotechnology.

The main task of the ESRF within this project will be in situ structural investigations, using x-ray reflectivity and grazing –incidence x-ray scattering, of graphene during its growth by chemical vapor deposition on liquid metal surfaces, using the most intense synchrotron x-ray beamlines of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.