A concept for the Spanish light source—ALBA

In Spring 2003, the Spanish and Catalan Governments created a public consortium for the construction, equipment, and exploitation of a third-generation synchrotron light source. The foundation was based upon a proposal presented at the end of 1997 to build a 2.5 GeV, 12 fold symmetry accelerator with a circumference of 250 m. In order to optimise the spectral characteristics of the synchrotron radiation a re-design of the light source is currently taking place. It will include several new developments that had been demonstrated feasible in third-generation light sources currently in operation: toping-up injection, storage ring and booster in a same tunnel, improvements in orbit stability, etc. In addition, the energy of the design has been upgraded to 3 GeV and a new, more performing lattice is being studied. The main candidate for the lattice, describing the linear parameters, beam dynamics, and estimation of the lifetime will also be discussed. Also the key design decisions, the project status and the schedule will be given. In order to analyse the performance of the different lattices, some general purpose IDs have been considered.