This book introduces in a thorough and self-contained way the production of electromagnetic radiation by high energy electron storage rings. This radiation, which is called synchroton radiation, has become a research tool of wide application. Physicists, chemists, biologists, geologists, engineers, material scientists, and other scientific disciplines use it as a structural probe for the study of surfaces, bulk material, crystals, and viruses. Solids, liquids and gases can be spectroscopically analysed by using synchroton radiation. This book brings together for the first time the properties as well as the means of production of synchroton radiation and presents them in a coherent and clear way. It will be an indispensable reference for all those involved in modern synchroton radiation experiments.