The 4th generation light source at Jefferson Lab

A number of “Grand Challenges” in Science have recently been identified in reports from The National Academy of Sciences, and the US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences. Many of these require a new generation of linac-based light source to study dynamical and non-linear phenomena in nanoscale samples. In this paper we present a summary of the properties of such light sources, comparing them with existing sources, and then describing in more detail a specific source at Jefferson Lab (JLab). Importantly, the JLab light source has developed some novel technology which is a critical enabler for other new light sources.