What am I doing here? Lab vs Synchrotron

With X-rays you can do a lot of cool physics in terms of investigating crystal structures, elemental analysis, electronic structures and surface topology but why Diamond light source? The simple answer is flux and energy; a far greater flux of photons and greater control over the energy of the incident X-rays.
So in a standard lab X-ray experimental set up you generate soft X-rays by accelerating electrons into an anode of chosen material producing two types of X-ray; Bremsstrahlung (German for breaking-radiation) due to the quick deceleration of electrons hitting the anode (the low energy bump) and characteristic X-rays which are at distinct energies associated with the electron energies in the anode material (the spikes labeled Kbeta and Kalpha). Thus most science is done with the characteristic X-rays, by filtering out the Bremsstrahlung X-rays, at the elemental distinct energy with copper tubes being the most used.

As shown in the figure the accelerating voltage of the electrons alters the intensity of X-rays out put of the tube. And the flux of a tube source is of the order 1x10^7 photons per second per mm^2.

Where as with a synchrotron you can select your energy through using magnets to decelerate your electrons emitting the X-rays and using such a large facility leads to fluxes of the order of 5x10^14 photons per second per mm^2.

I need to dash off and sort the sample order for the first experiment so,
I'll be back  . . .