The Institute of Physics (IOP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) plans to construct a national major scientific and technological infrastructure project of the Advanced Attosecond Light Source. It will be China's first large-scale light source of a new category, different from the synchrotron radiation and the free-electron laser (FEL). To be built in Dongguan, Guangdong in cooperation with Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of CAS and Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, this project will help promote the national "Belt and Road" Initiative, enable IOP to seize the major strategic opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, keep pace with the development of the International Center of Science and Innovation and the Comprehensive National Science Center of the Bay Area, and give full play to the role of national major scientific and technological infrastructure in supporting and driving local scientific and technological innovation. With its high-standard design, the facility is expected to lead globally in terms of its composite indicators after completion and become Asia's first and world's second large-scale scientific facility of the attosecond pulse.

On April 3, 2020, IOP officially Established the Expert Consultation Committee for the Advanced Attosecond Light Source (Preparatory), and invited CAS Academician Zhan Wenlong as Director; Academician Hou Xun, Academician Li Ruxin, and Academician Wang Enge as Deputy Directors; Academician Zhao Zhongxian, Academician Yao Jianquan, Academician Wang Lijun, Academician Xiang Libin, Academician Xu Tao, Academician Hao Yue, Academician Wang Jianyu, Academician Yang Xueming, Academician Li Jiangang, Academician Zhao Zhentang, Academician Ma Yugang, Academician Xue Qikun, Academician Yu Dapeng, Academician Xu Hongxing, Prof. Zhao Wei and Prof. Wei Zhiyi as members. Official letters of appointment were granted to the 20 senior scientists.

The Advanced Attosecond Light Source facility will include a multi-beam line station with high repetition frequency, high photon energy, high flux and ultrashort pulse width, providing ultra-fast coherent radiation with the shortest pulse width of less than 100as and photon energy up to 1keV, and also a supporting application research platform. The proposal to launch and construct the facility as soon as possible has gained the unanimous consent of experts in this field. After completion, the facility will provide a new research platform and new measures for the studies into condensed matter physics, new materials, ultrafast chemistry and nuclear physics. It will also be complementary to SAPS and China Spallation Neutron Source to further enhance China's innovation capability in fundamental research and promote interdisciplinary application. It will become a new science and technology highlight, and one of the important bases for frontier research and industrialized application with international influence.