ELETTRA is a large multidisciplinary synchrotron light laboratory open to researchers in such diverse basic and applied fields as material and life sciences, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, environmental studies and geology.

ELETTRA, which is equipped with ultra-bright light sources lying in the spectral range from UV to X-rays, offers a state-of-the-art international environment for researchers from universities, national laboratories and private enterprises from around the world.

The light is made available through beamlines that feed into several measuring stations using techniques ranging from X-ray diffraction and absorption to photoelectron spectroscopy, and from microradiography to photolithography.

The total annual operating time of ELETTRA is approximately 5,000 hours. That, in turn, provides about 75,000 hours of user time on the measurement stations.