The Hefei Advanced Light Facility (HALF) glows from above, its circular form resembling a giant eye in Hefei, Anhui Province on the evening of Thursday, June 25. (Compiled by Zhi Yanyan)

HALF is a national infrastructure project under China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), led by the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui Province. A fourth-generation synchrotron – a type of particle accelerator that generates intense X-ray beams used to probe matter at the atomic level – it will be the world's most advanced facility of its kind in the low-energy range. Now officially inaugurated, it enters a new phase of full-scale equipment installation.

When complete, HALF will position Hefei as a global hub for photon science, serving frontier disciplines including materials science, life sciences and energy research.

A researcher conducts pre-alignment and commissioning tests on storage ring magnet units on November 4, 2025.

Workers construct the main building on November 26, 2025.

A researcher calibrates front-end components in the beamline hall.

Staff carry out injector installation on May 19.

Researchers install storage ring magnets on June 2.

A researcher conducts offline alignment and commissioning of vacuum chamber photon absorbers on June 2.