Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility

[1] In 1972 Mike Bancroft, a chemistry professor at the University of Western Ontario (UWO) took part in a workshop organised by Bill McGowan on the uses of synchrotron radiation.

[1] A Grasshopper-type monochromator – so-called as its mechanical drive arm resembled a grasshopper's hind legs – was ordered from Baker Engineering.

The beamline was installed within a year, and by late 1981 initial results showed the performance to be state of the art over the 50–500eV photon energy range.

[3] Notable early work included X-ray microscopy on biological samples, and gas-phase spectroscopy with a very influential series of papers on noble gases.

SRC was building a new synchrotron, Aladdin, and again Rowe offered CSRF 100% use of their beamline at no change in perpetuity on the new machine.

[5] Bancroft later commented: "We were I think, the first beamline to transfer over, maybe we took a little bit of a risk because Aladdin's performance wasn't completely confirmed".

A photoemission spectrometer was donated by Ron Cavell of the University of Alberta and modified for high resolution gas-phase work.

Funding was obtained in 1994 and Brian Yates, who had been Bancroft's first synchrotron PhD student, was hired to construct the beamline.

Several ex-CSRF personnel, including Kim Tan, moved to the CLS, and the Saskatoon laboratory employed many former CSRF users.

[1] Emil Hallin, then of the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory which designed the CLS, now its Director of Strategic Scientific Development,[14] got his first experience of synchrotron beamlines at CSRF.