The Swiss Light Source (SLS) at the Paul Scherrer Institut is a third-generation synchrotron light source, which offers quality (high brightness), flexibility (wide wavelength spectrum) and stability (very stable temperature conditions) for the primary electron beam and the secondary photon beams.
Main component of the SLS is the 2.4 GeV electron storage ring of 288 m circumference. It provides photon beams of high brightness for research in materials science, biology and chemistry. The SLS has, since June 2009, eighteen experimental stations (undulators and bending magnets) and sixteen operational beamlines. There are three protein crystallography beam-lines, two of which are partially funded by associations with Swiss pharmaceutical companies including Novartis, Roche, Actelion, Boehringer Ingelheim and Proteros.