Science Highlights
Correlation of Lithium-Ion Battery Performance with Structural and
Chemical Transformations – Contacts:
Feng Lin and Marca Doeff (LBNL), Dennis Nordlund and Tsu-Chien Weng (SSRL)
Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are widely used in applications ranging
from consumer electronics to electric vehicles. An important feature of a
high-quality battery is a long lifetime, i.e. a large number of possible
charge-discharge cycles. However, every cycle introduces changes in the
battery’s electrode material, limiting its cyclability. A research
collaboration has recently examined the occurring structural and chemical
changes in the electrode material during cycling and linked them to the
performance of lithium-ion batteries. Read more...
See related SLAC News Feature
Magnetism and Superconductivity Compete in Iron-based
Superconductors –
Contact: Donghui Lu (SSRL)
High-temperature superconductors are materials whose electrical resistance
vanishes below critical temperatures that are much higher than for conventional
superconductors. As potential energy-saving electrical conductor materials,
they are of immense interest for a wide range of industrial applications.
Despite extensive research, the exact mechanism behind high-temperature
superconductivity has remained an unsolved mystery. Now, an international team
of researchers has solved an important piece of the puzzle. Read more...
See related SLAC News Feature
Science Update
Bay Area Cryo-EM Meeting at Stanford/SLAC
On April 17, 65 cryo-electronmicroscopists attended the Bay Area Cryo-EM
Meeting, which was hosted at SLAC in partnership between members of Prof. Roger
Kornberg’s laboratory at Stanford and the SSRL Structural Molecular
Biology group, and with Dr. Hans Elmlund as meeting organizer. Despite the name
of the meeting, the participants included a mix of U.S. and international
participants in addition to Bay Area cryo-EM scientists from several
universities and institutions. Topics included a range of biological cryo-EM
applications, illustrating the strong technical developments that enable the
study of increasingly complex and challenging systems. It also described
multi-technique approaches, including combining cryo-EM with NMR, STEM, atomic
force microscopy and x-ray diffraction, as well as computational
approaches. Talks on single-particle imaging and crystallography
capabilities at LCLS were part of the workshop, setting the stage for a tour to
the LCLS CXI station. There is much recent interest in single-particle
techniques in both the coherent x-ray diffraction and cryo-EM communities, and
one of the goals of the meeting was to bring them together to seed ideas and
collaborations. The agenda can be found at http://simple.stanford.edu/cryoem_bay.html
Upcoming Onsite Events
SSRL School on Synchrotron X-ray Scattering
Techniques in Materials and Environmental Sciences, June 3-5, 2014
The 7th SSRL SRXRS (Synchrotron Radiation-based X-ray
Scattering techniques) School will provide a practical users' guide to
planning and conducting scattering measurements at SSRL beam lines, and will
cover important techniques including small angle scattering, thin-film
scattering, powder diffraction, structure refinement and surface x-ray
scattering. The school will address topics that are not commonly included in
text books or class lectures, and typically obtained only through
on-the-experiment training. There will be hands-on sessions at SSRL beam lines
and session of diffraction theory and on data analysis. The school will also
cover new instrumentation at SSRL scattering beam lines. This year's
school, which will take place June 3-5, is organized by: Apurva Mehta, Stefan
Mannsfeld, Chris Tassone, and Mike Toney. The registration deadline is
Thursday, May 29. See website
PULSE Institute - Ultrafast X-ray Summer Seminar, June 15-19,
2014
Hosted by the Stanford PULSE Institute, the UXSS is organized in
collaboration with the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at DESY in
Hamburg, Germany, and the Helmholtz Virtual Institute for Dynamic Pathways in
Multidimensional Landscapes, Germany.
The goal of UXSS 2014 is to disseminate information and train students and
post-docs on new opportunities in ultrafast science, particularly using x-ray
free electron lasers. See website
SSRL School on Synchrotron X-ray Microscale Imaging Techniques, July
11-15, 2014 - Save the Date
The 1st SSRL SXRMI (Synchrotron X-ray MicroXAS Imaging) School will provide
a practical users' guide to planning and conducting microXAS imaging
experiments at SSRL beam lines. Students will participate in hands-on sessions
at the beam lines, including on the following facilities: hard x-ray microXAS
imaging (BL2-3), hard x-ray mesoprobe XAS imaging (BL10-2), and the newest
microXAS imaging “tender” energy beam line (BL14-3). The
hands-on sessions will be paired with several sessions of data analysis and
data mining of imaging data. The School will also cover new instrumentation and
techniques at SSRL microXAS imaging beam lines and will include topics that can
only be learned by direct access and experience at the facility through
on-the-experiment training. This initial school, which will take place July
11-15, is organized by Sam Webb and Courtney Roach. Watch for the School's
webpage to appear soon on the SSRL News & Events page.
High Power Laser Workshop, October
7-8, 2014 - Save the Date
SSRL/LCLS Annual Users'
Conference and Workshops, October 7-10, 2014 - Save the Date
Macromolecular Crystallography: Stanford AutoMounter
(SAM) Developers' Forum Workshop,
October 10, 2014 - Save the Date
NUFO Event
Call for User Science Demonstrations, Videos for
NUFO Science Exhibition in DC, June 10
A National User Facility Organization (NUFO) User Science
Exhibition will be held on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in the foyer of the U.S.
House of Representatives Rayburn Office Building. Discovery and energy are the
themes for the NUFO exhibition. Users are encouraged to participate in this
event, which will feature hands-on demonstrations, videos, and examples of user
and industry research. Contact NUFO Vice Chair Stephen Wasserman
(swasserman@lilly.com). The Future of
America is the Research of Today
User Research Administration Announcements
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Proposal Deadlines
– SSRL X-ray/VUV proposals can be submitted three
times a year: June 1, and September 1 and December 1
– SSRL Macromolecular Crystallography proposals can be
submitted April 1 and July 1 and December 1.
– LCLS Protein Crystal Screening proposals for CSI and
XPP are due by 4 pm (PST) on May 12, 2014
– LCLS general proposals for experiments on AMO, SXR,
XPP, CXI, XCS, MEC are due by 4 pm (PST) on July 29, 2014
— Submit beam time requests and proposals through
the user
portal.
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Inform Us of Publications, Awards,
Patents
SSRL provides technical tools for world-leading science at
no charge for scientists who conduct non-proprietary research, with the
understanding that significant results are to be publicly disseminated.
Scientists must acknowledge use of the facility in presentations and
publications and must inform us of all publications, theses, awards, patents
and other forms of recognition resulting from research conducted fully or
partially at SSRL. These metrics of scientific achievements and productivity
are extremely important to the facility, and to our funding agencies
Reminder: Please also contact us as research results
are about to be published so that we can work with you to more broadly
communicate your research.
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Temporary Food Service Available during Construction
of New Cafeteria in Science and User Support Building
The SLAC Cafe, auditorium and visitor center are closed and
will be replaced by a new Science and User Support Building (SUSB). During this
construction (2013-2015), temporary food service will be provided by the
Cardinal Chef Mobile Gourmet food trucks, 11am - 2pm in front of SLAC Building
27. Lunch menus are posted online. See map
In an effort to expand the food service available onsite
SLAC has also launched a "Virtual Cafeteria" using services provided
by the "Eat Club". Eat Club is a local lunch delivery service.
They collaborate with local restaurants to provide quality food fitting a
variety of tastes at an affordable price. Orders are placed and paid for
through their online service. The SLAC community can review the
daily selections and place an online order in the morning using a personal
credit card. Drop-off delivery will be made around noon each day to several
locations around the site. A drop-off location has now been added in the
SSRL Building 120 Experimental Hall.
Individual on-line registration takes just a few minutes.
The url for sign-up for a free account and for pre-order is www.myeatclub.com/slac-cafeteria
A Starbucks kiosk near the Guest House parking lot will open
early this summer to offer daily walk-up coffee and takeout pastries and cold
sandwiches. The kiosk will be open from 6am to 6pm Monday through Friday, and
tentatively on weekends from 6am to 2pm.
The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) is a third-generation
light source producing extremely bright x-rays for basic and applied
research. SSRL attracts and supports scientists from around the world who
use its state-of-the-art capabilities to make discoveries that benefit society.
SSRL, a U.S. DOE Office of Science national user facility, is a Directorate of
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, operated by Stanford University for the
U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The SSRL Structural
Molecular Biology Program is supported by the DOE Office of Biological and
Environmental Research, and by the National Institutes of Health, National
Institute of General Medical Sciences. For more information about SSRL science,
operations and schedules, visit http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu.
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Questions? Comments? Contact Lisa Dunn
