The CD1 beam line, dedicated to Synchrotron Radiation Circular Dichroism (SRCD) experiments, was commissioned in 2007. The ASTRID SRCD facility was formerly based on the UV1 beam line which hosts many other UV and VUV experiments, therefore time for SRCD experiments was limited. The success of the UV1 beam line and SRCD was clear from the number of applications received from scientists worldwide and it was not possible to accommodate everyone who applied. Also, it was difficult to schedule experiments with short notice, where the advantages of this technique of fast data acquisition (approximately 1 hour for a sample) and simple sample preparation, could be exploited to allow immediate characterisation of newly prepared samples. The aim of the CD1 beam line was therefore to establish a dedicated SRCD facility on ASTRID, offering year round access and the possibility for experiments on short notice.

The CD beam line was transferred from ASTRID to the new ASTRID2 ring in 2014.

The AU-CD beam line operates in the 110-700 nm wavelength region and is optimised for 110-350 nm, which is the biologically most relevant region in SRCD.