Progress of the R&D towards a diffraction limited upgrade of the Advanced light source

Improvements in brightness and coherent flux of about two orders of magnitude over operational storage ring based light sources are possible using multi bend achromat lattice designs [1]. These improvements can be implemented as upgrades of existing facilities, like the proposed upgrade of the Advanced Light Source, making use of the existing infrastructure, thereby reducing cost and time needed to reach full scientific productivity on a large number of beamlines. An R&D program funded by internal laboratory funds was started at LBNL to further develop the technologies necessary for diffraction-limited storage rings (DLSR). It initially involves five areas, and focuses on the specific needs of soft x-ray facilities: vacuum system/NEG coating of small chambers, injection/pulsed magnets, RF systems/bunch lengthening, magnets/radiation production with advanced radiation devices, and beam physics design optimization. Some hardware prototypes have been built. The work will expand in the future to demonstrate necessary key technologies at the subsystem level or in beam tests and include new areas like photon beamline optics.