| Imagine a huge, ring-shaped facility that accelerates electrons as they orbit the ring. This is a synchrotron, and it produces synchrotron radiation by bending the path of electrons and causing their cloaks of light to be thrown off as electromagnetic waves such as light or X-rays. The wavelength of this synchrotron radiation can be controlled by adjusting the speed (energy) of the orbiting electrons. The synchrotron radiation emits outside through window holes located in the ring. Actual ring-shaped synchrotrons experimental facilities accelerate electrons to about the speed of light in order to obtain synchrotron radiation of the X-ray region in the spectrum. This requires an extremely high voltage, and accordingly other very bulky devices in addition to the ring in order to control the electrons and ensure safety. The equipment required makes these facilities very large, which is why there are only about 20 worldwide. Japan's SPring-8 (an acronym for Super Photon ring-8 GeV) facility in Hyogo Prefecture is one of the world's most powerful synchrotrons. Its ring has a circumference of 1.4 kilometers.
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