Canada’s light source centre, enabling innovative health, agriculture, environment, and advanced materials research for industry, government, and academic scientists.
The Canadian Light Source, a national research facility of the University of Saskatchewan, is the only synchrotron in Canada and one of the largest scientific infrastructure investments in the country’s history. More than 1,000 academic, government and industry scientists from across Canada and around the world access the CLS every year, in innovative health, agriculture, environment, and advanced materials research.
Synchrotron light's high brilliance, high intensity, sharp focus, and tunability offer a huge advantage over conventional techniques.
Many synchrotron techniques can be performed with little to no sample manipulation or preparation before analysis, detecting even low concentrations of elemental forms. Fast, in-situ, non-destructive experiments allow scientists to use our tools in a broad range of research areas, furthering knowledge in myriad fields.
CLS enables an extremely wide range of science projects on multiple experimental stations (beamlines) operating simultaneously. The beamlines are optimized for select parts of the light spectrum and used in a broad range of experimental techniques including spectroscopy, diffraction, imaging from the macro to the nanoscale and combinations thereof. Data collection can be relatively rapid (on the order of sub-second) and is of a quality and breadth not possible at any other facility in Canada.
The Industry Services group, a dedicated team of experts whose mission is to bring the power of synchrotron-based tools to Canadian industry, offers a wide range of services on a fee-for-service basis, from purchased access to full-service experimental design, execution, and analysis, unlocking unparalleled insights into sample composition and structure, spanning macro to molecular scales.
- Plant Phenotyping, Crop and Agri-Product Development, including cannabis research: available techniques include computed tomography (CT); X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS); macromolecular crystallography (MX); infrared spectromicroscopy; Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).
- Drug Development, Protein Crystallography and Biomedical Imaging: macromolecular crystallography (MX); small-molecule diffraction (SM-XRD); powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD); computed tomography (CT).
- Development of Advanced Materials: powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD); small-molecule diffraction (SM-XRD); computed tomography (CT); X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS); X-ray spectromicroscopy; X-ray photoelectron microscopy.
- Mining, Oil and Gas, and Soil Science, including radioactive materials and critical minerals: powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD); X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS); computed tomography (CT); Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM); X-ray fluorescence mapping.
- Aerospace and satellites
- Agriculture, animal science and food
- Automotive
- Chemical industries
- Clean technology
- Defence and security industries
- Energy
- Environmental technologies and related services
- Fisheries and aquaculture
- Forestry and forest-based industries
- Life sciences, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment
- Manufacturing and processing
- Mining, minerals and metals
Specialized labs and equipment
Specialized lab | Equipment | Function |
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Biomedical Imaging and Therapy beamlines |
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Canadian Macromolecular Crystallography facilities |
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Far-Infrared Spectroscopy beamline |
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Hard X-Ray Microanalysis beamline |
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High-Resolution Spherical Grating Monochromator beamline |
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Mid-Infrared Spectromicroscopy beamline |
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Resonant Elastic And Inelastic X-Ray Scattering beamline |
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Soft X-Ray Microcharacterization beamline |
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Soft X-ray Spectromicroscopy beamline |
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Synchrotron Laboratory for Micro and Nano Devices |
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Variable Line Spacing Plane Grating Monochromator beamline |
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Very Sensitive Elemental and Structural Probe Employing Radiation from a Synchrotron |
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Electron Imaging and Microanalysis Lab | Thermo Quattro S ESEM Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope |
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Private and public sector research partners
- BASF
- BP
- Cameco
- Canadian Nuclear Laboratories
- Chevron
- Cocrystal Pharma Inc.
- Composites Innovation Centre
- Composites Research Network
- Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Québec (CRIAQ)
- Dow Chemical
- Ford
- General Motors
- IBM
- Lorax Environmental Services Ltd.
- National Research Council Canada
- NASA
- Orano
- Petroleum Technology Research Centre
- SRK Consulting Inc.
- Suncor Energy
- Zymeworks Inc.
Additional information
Title | URL |
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Virtual tour of the synchrotron research facility. | https://www.lightsource.ca/public/tours.php |
Beamlines and techniques. | https://www.lightsource.ca/facilities/beamlines/where-to-start.php |
Canadian Light Source's industry services. | https://www.lightsource.ca/industry/our-services.php |
Better data, faster. | https://www.lightsource.ca/science/better-data-faster.php |