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Last Updated: | 29 JUL 2000 |
| Content Owner: | L. Dunn | |
| Page Editor: | L. Dunn |
**** **** **** * * * * * * **** **** **** * * * * * * **** **** * * **** HEADLINES - a digital monthly publication
Contents of This Issue:
1. SSRL Headlines - a New Means to Communicate Happenings at SSRL
by Keith
Hodgson, SSRL Director (hodgson@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu)
SSRL has for many years used "conventional" means for disseminating information about activities and highlights. While these printed media will continue to be used, we are inaugurating a more frequent and rapid means of communication in the form of a monthly electronic newsletter. It is our intent to provide short highlight style writeups and links or emails for those who would like further information. Users are especially encouraged to submit short highlights with citations of exciting results that have derived from the use of SSRL. Information is found at the end of the newsletter with regard to adding or removing names from the mailing list. We very much look forward to better serving our user community and welcome your input and suggestions.
2. 2000 SPEAR Run Ends - the Most Successful Ever
by Lisa Dunn (lisa@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu)
The 2000 user run ended on July 4 (begun on November 1, 1999). The 8-month run was ended about 3 weeks earlier than usual to provide adequate shutdown time for the first conventional construction activities related to the SPEAR3 installation project (see 3. below). Over the entire 8-month run, beam was delivered a record setting 96.8%. There were 895 unique users (a 14.5% increase over the 1999 run) who visited the site during this run of which 321 were "first time" users. The users started 765 individual experimental runs.
3. SPEAR3 Project Passes Milestones in July
by Tom Elioff, SPEAR3 Project
Director (telioff@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu)
SPEAR3 Dipole and Quadrupole Magnet Systems - Fabrication of the gradient dipole prototype magnet was completed and shipped from IHEP in Beijing on June 5. Magnetic measurements at IHEP indicated that the field quality specifications were met. The unit arrived safely via ship and was delivered to SLAC on July 6. Additional magnetic measurements are being made now to confirm the field quality. The tolerances of the laminations have already been checked and punching of the production laminations for the dipole magnet family is already underway at IHEP. The first laminations for the SPEAR3 quadrupole magnets were also received at SLAC in late June. Additional measurements at SLAC have now confirmed that the laminations were well within the specified tolerances. Approval was given on July 6 for IHEP to proceed with production of the quadrupole laminations. These milestones for both dipoles and quadrupoles are meeting the schedule for magnet fabrication that was established last fall. This joint NIH-DOE project remains on schedule for the major installation beginning in April, 2003.
Conventional Construction - Following the most successful user run in SSRL history, on July 4 SSRL began the first shutdown period of SPEAR where a significant amount of conventional construction work will be completed in the East and West pits in preparation for SPEAR3. The summer 2000 shutdown was lengthened by about 3 weeks to accommodate the large amount of concrete and shielding work and construction is already well underway.
4. New Molecular Environmental Science Beam Line Serves First Users
by John
Bargar (bargar@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu)
Since receiving first monochromatic light in May, the new MES beam line funded by DOE-BES has undergone a number of tests and been scheduled with a number of users. The beam line is delivering ca. 2x1012 photons/sec between 8 and 18 keV (about an order of magnitude more than achieved on other Si(220)-equipped SSRL beam lines used for MES activities). The 30-element Ge array detector system has performed to specifications with very high count rates and resolution (500 kHz input counting rate, 280 eV FWHM energy resolution at Zn K-alpha line). Tests performed at the U L(III)-edge using a dilute (190 ppm U) sample from an aquifer remediation field site indicate that the range of EXAFS k-space that can be measured at BL11-2 is more than double what could be measured on other SSRL MES beam lines. The monochromator, which is the first such liquid nitrogen-cooled device implemented at SSRL, and a key component of upgrade plans for SPEAR3 on all the high power SSRL beam lines, has proven remarkably stable, even at 500L/h LN2 flow rates. It exhibits no symptoms of thermal limitations on beam intensity throughput. Commissioning and tests have been interspersed with four user beam periods, during which time publishable K- or L-edge EXAFS data for Ce, Fe, Cu, As, Hg, Pb, Sr, U, and Rh have been measured. Users have been impressed with the capabilities of the new beam line and it certainly provides one of the most advanced and capable beam lines in the world for studies of dilute molecular environmental samples.
For further information see: http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/mes
5. Scripps-Stanford Crystallography Beam Line in User Commissioning
by Peter
Kuhn (kuhn@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu)
BL11-1 is a joint project with The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), Stanford University (SU) and SSRL who entered into a Participating Research Team (PRT) agreement for the construction, development and operation of the beam line. BL11-1 is the sidestation of the BL11 wiggler beam line. The Beam Line Development (BLD) group completed the first commissioning of BL11-1 with 'First Monochromatic Light' on June 15, 2000. With the help of BLD, the Structural Molecular Biology (SMB) group installed experimental instrumentation and collected a first diffraction data set of myoglobin on June 28, 2000. The excellent quality of this first data set allowed the immediate scheduling of a user group from June 30 until July 3, 2000. During this time period, the Wilson group (TSRI) collected 7 data sets on various projects. The beam line will now undergo a final commissioning and checkout including modifications of the monochromator to be ready for operations in the beginning of November for the 2001 run.
For further information see: http://smb.slac.stanford.edu/bl111/
6. Panel Selects First Scientific Experiments for LCLS
by Jo Stöhr (stohr@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu)
The Scientific Advisory Committee for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) has selected six scientific experiments that will be proposed for the early phase of the project. If funded, LCLS will be the first XFEL in the world and also the first fourth generation x-ray source, operating in the 800-8,000 eV energy range. The emitted coherent x-rays will have unprecedented brightness with 1012-1013 photons/pulse in a 0.2-0.4% energy bandpass and an unprecedented time structure with a design pulse length of 230 fs. The selected experiments are (not in priority order):
1. Structural Studies on Single Biomolecules and Particles
2. Warm Dense
Matter and Plasmas
3. High Field Atomic Physics
4. Nanoscale Dynamics in
Condensed Matter
5. Femtosecond Chemistry
6. X-ray Laser Physics
A document with detailed descriptions of the above experiments is currently being prepared by the experimental teams. It will be submitted to the Basic Energy Sciences Division of DOE by September 1, 2000, to support the proposed construction of the LCLS that could begin as early as fall, 2002.
7. SESAME Site Selected in Jordan
by Herman Winick (winick@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu)
At a meeting of the Interim Council for SESAME, the site for the new international laboratory was selected. The site is 102,000 square meters of wooded land about 30 minutes from Amman and 30 minutes from the Jordan river. The King of Jordan presided over the opening ceremony of the meeting and has pledged $1M per year for 5 years towards the operations costs. Efforts will now intensify to raise the additional funds to exploit the gift of the BESSY I facility by Germany, including upgrading it to extend the spectral range to hard x-rays, and to identify a Director, Project Manager, and other key staff. During June, H. Winick visited universities and other institutions in four countries of the Middle East and gave nine seminars on Synchrotron Radiation Research and the SESAME Project. DOE-BES funding for a scientific exchange program is already helping train scientists from the Middle East in relevant technologies and science.
For further information see: http://www.sesame.org.jo/
8. New Gateway Program Has Successful Start
by Russ Chianelli (chianell@utep.edu)
A new DOE-BES funded Gateway program involving SSRL and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is providing new training and research opportunities targeted toward Mexican and Mexican American students. In the first period under this new program, a group of 16 UTEP students and staff underwent training and carried out experiments on existing SSRL peer-reviewed proposals coordinated across four separate beam lines. All the students and staff with the exception of the group leaders and two students had no previous synchrotron experience. SSRL staff worked closely with UTEP faculty and staff to train and support the new students and their research efforts. We jointly look forward to a steadily increasing degree of success and increasing level of confidence in these and other students. The benefit to the nation in welcoming students, including those of Mexican and Mexican-American culture, to advanced scientific research using synchrotron radiation will be great.
SSRL Headlines is published electronically monthly to inform SSRL users, sponsors and other interested people about happenings at SSRL. SSRL is a national synchrotron user facility operated by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences. Additional support for the structural biology program is provided by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research, the NIH National Center for Research Resources and the NIH Institute for General Medical Sciences. Additional information about SSRL and its operation and schedules is available from the SSRL WWW site: http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/
You can subscribe or remove your name from the distribution list by sending a brief email with your request to Lisa Dunn, editor, at lisa@ssrl.slac.stanford.edu.