Slovakia

The Slovak synchrotron community is a free non-structured cluster of synchrotron users. Around 10 teams counting 30-35 users in total can be identified, performing up to 10 synchrotron experiments per year.

The synchrotron users come from:
– Institutes of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava and Košice
– Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava
– Comenius University, Bratislava
– Pavol Jozef Šafárik University, Košice

The synchrotron experiments encompass:
– SAXS and WAXS of polymers, polymer blends and drugs;
– GISAXS of nanoparticle self-assemblies and other nanostructures;
– V-shaped channel-cut monochromators for X-ray imaging and metrology;
– Mössbauer spectroscopy by nuclear resonant scattering;
– Protein crystallography; and,
– Electron density studies

There is no national funding scheme for access to synchrotron radiation facilities except for membership fees of Slovakia in ESRF and XFEL consortia. The expenses for synchrotron experiments are covered mostly from various projects of synchrotron users as needed. Winter School on Synchrotron Radiation and Autumn School on X-ray Scattering from Surfaces and Thin Layers are organized regularly to enhance awarness of the synchrotron-related research among PhD students and young scientists.