From Apatity to CERN
Crystals from North Crystals in Apatity, Murmansk Oblast, were an important part of the technology when CERN’s Large Hadron Collider succeeded at producing its first particle collisions on Monday.
North Crystals is one of Russia’s largest manufacturers of monocrystals for laser optics. Since 2000, the company has cooperated with the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) project on development of the technology needed for large-scale production of lead tungstate crystals.
North Crystals has delivered more than 3500 such crystals to the Large Hadron Collider, the company’s web page reads.
In 2004, North Crystals was awarded with the ALICE Industrial Award for its achievements within advanced crystal technology, CERN writes.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, intended to collide opposing particle beams protons. The LHC lies in a circular tunnel 27 kilometres in circumference, as much as 175 meters beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. It is the world’s largest machine, according to Wikipedia.
The first beam was circulated through the collider in September 2008, but a faulty electrical connection resulted in malfunction and the experiment then had to be stopped.
