Pohang Light Source-II (PLS-II)

The Pohang Light Source-II (PLS-II), operated by the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory in Pohang, South Korea, is the country’s national synchrotron — a 3 GeV storage ring that has been at the heart of Korean materials, chemistry and life-science research since the mid-1990s.

When it opened in 1995 the original Pohang Light Source was the only third-generation synchrotron in Korea and one of the first in the world. Between 2009 and 2011 it was comprehensively rebuilt, re-entering service as PLS-II in 2012 with higher energy, lower emittance and many more beamlines. It is a national user facility, operated by the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) together with POSTECH, and serves thousands of researchers each year.

At a glanceFacility profile

Location

Pohang, South Korea

Operator

Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) and POSTECH

Type

Third-generation synchrotron

Energy

3 GeV

Beam current

300–400 mA

Beamlines

Around 35

First light

1995 (PLS); upgraded to PLS-II in 2012

Website

pal.postech.ac.kr

The scienceWhat researchers do here

PLS-II supports research across the physical and life sciences, with particular strength in energy materials — batteries, catalysts and fuel cells — as well as semiconductors, soft matter and structural biology. Its beamlines deliver X-ray diffraction and scattering, spectroscopy and imaging, helping scientists connect the atomic structure of a material to the way it behaves. The facility is heavily used by Korean industry as well as by universities and research institutes.

A national synchrotron rebuilt for a new generation: from a pioneering ring in 1995 to today’s high-brightness PLS-II.

Pohang is also home to PAL-XFEL, an X-ray free-electron laser on the same campus, giving Korean researchers access to both a high-brightness storage ring and an ultrafast laser source within a single laboratory.