Synchrotron Radiation as an Infrared Source

The increasing availability of synchrotron radiation sources in a number of geographical regions of the world has motivated an evaluation of the radiation from electron accelerators and storage rings as a possible source for ir spectroscopy. As synchrotron radiation can be analytically described, a direct comparison is made with blackbody radiation for typical solid state spectroscopy. Both existing and proposed synchrotron radiation sources are found to be attractive in the ir. The ultrahigh vacuum environment of the source is compatible with clean surface investigations, the analytical description of the radiation is appropriate for calibration studies, and the continuous nature is suitable for Fourier spectroscopy or whenever a white light source is desirable.