Synchrotron radiation

Electron accelerators such as synchrotrons and storage rings are the best sources of X-rays and ultraviolet photons for research and technological applications. The physical mechanisms for all these sources use relativistic effects to increase the emission and its photon energies, and require an electron (or positron) beam moving at relativistic speed. The specific implementation of this strategy is reviewed here for different types of synchrotron or synchrotron-related sources: bending magnets, wigglers, undulators, helical wigglers, and free-electron lasers (FELs).