Search

An undulator generating a magnetic field whose longitudinal profile is arbitrarily varied has been developed, which is one of the key components in a number of proposed new concepts in free-electron lasers. The undulator is composed of magnet modules, each of which corresponds to a single undulator period, and is driven by a linear actuator to change the magnetic gap independently. To relax the requirement on the actuator, the mechanical load on each module due to magnetic force acting from opponent and adjacent modules is reduced by means of two kinds of spring systems. The performance of the constructed undulator has been successfully demonstrated by magnetic measurement and characterization of synchrotron radiation.

A novel method to fabricate undulator magnets of a-few-millimetre-period length is being explored. Plate-type magnets, 100 mm-long with 4 mm-period length, have been successfully fabricated. They produce an undulator field of approximately 3 kG at a gap of 1.6 mm. Prototype undulators based on this technology have been constructed. Field measurements and characterization show that the quality of the undulator field of these plate magnets is sufficient for an undulator light source, and the calculated spectrum shows that the fundamental radiation emitted from this field is quite satisfactory. Test experiments for light generation using a real electron beam have been carried out at a test accelerator at the Research Center for Electron Photon Science (ELPH), Tohoku University, Japan, which is able to realize optics conditions to accept a very short gap of ∼1.6 mm. First observation and characterization of blue light was successfully accomplished.

Reported here are the results of experiments carried out to demonstrate the magnetic performance of dysprosium (Dy) to enhance the capability of undulators. Tiny pieces of monocrystalline Dy surrounded by permanent magnets (PMs) work as pole pieces (PPs) to concentrate the magnetic flux, when cooled down below the Curie temperature of 85 K. A PP made of Dy is much more attractive than one made of a conventional material, because its saturation magnetization is much higher. Furthermore, it also allows for a more flexible selection of PM material, potentially leading to further enhancement of the performance of short-period undulators. Besides these advantages, practical issues related to using Dy PPs and countermeasures against them are discussed.

Constructing vacuum-ultraviolet beamlines at synchrotron radiation facilities with giga-electron volt storage ring results in serious heat load on the beamlines which can reduce their performance. To solve this problem, an APPLE-Knot undulator with eight magnet rows has been built at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility and has achieved very good performance. However, its performance in vertical polarization mode is imperfect. Here, a new configuration of a magnet-merged APPLE-Knot undulator that has achieved a better performance is reported.

Y.Kotani, Y.Senba, K.Toyoki, et al. Realization of a scanning soft X-ray microscope for magnetic imaging under high magnetic fields. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation 25, 1444 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600577518009177., For the purpose of imaging element- and shell-specific magnetic distributions under high magnetic fields, a scanning soft X-ray microscope has been developed at beamline BL25SU, SPring-8, Japan. The scanning X-ray microscope utilizes total electron yield detection of absorbed circularly polarized soft X-rays in order to observe magnetic domains through the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism effect. Crucially, this system is equipped with an 8 T superconducting magnet. The performance and features of the present system are demonstrated by magnetic domain observations of the fractured surface of a Nd₁₄.₀Fe₇₉.₇Cu₀.₁B₆.₂ sintered magnet.

Magnetic field induced rearrangement of magnetic nanoparticles was observed using synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering methods., Superparamagnetic nanoparticles have broad applications in biology and medicines. Quantitative measurements of magnetic beads in solution are essential in gaining comprehensive understanding of their dynamics and developing applications. Here, using synchrotron X-ray sources combined with well controlled magnetic fields, the results from small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments on superparamagnetic particles in solution under the influence of external magnetic fields are reported. The particles mostly remain in monodispersed states and the linear aggregates tend to be aligned with the external magnetic field. After removing the magnetic fields, the superparamagnetic nanoparticles quickly recover to their original states indicating high reversibility of the rearrangement under the control of a magnetic field. The external magnetic field instrument composed of paired permanent magnets is integrated into the SAXS beamline at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility providing a platform for studying time-resolved dynamics induced by magnetic fields.

The high-field magnet endstation for X-ray magnetic dichroism experiments at the ESRF soft X-ray beamline ID32 is presented., A new high-field magnet endstation for X-ray magnetic dichroism experiments has been installed and commissioned at the ESRF soft X-ray beamline ID32. The magnet consists of two split-pairs of superconducting coils which can generate up to 9 T along the beam and up to 4 T orthogonal to the beam. It is connected to a cluster of ultra-high-vacuum chambers that offer a comprehensive set of surface preparation and characterization techniques. The endstation and the beam properties have been designed to provide optimum experimental conditions for X-ray magnetic linear and circular dichroism experiments in the soft X-ray range between 400 and 1600 eV photon energy. User operation started in November 2014.

The MAX IV 3 GeV electron storage ring in Lund, Sweden, is the first of a new generation of light sources to make use of the multibend-achromat lattice (MBA) to achieve ultralow emitance and hence ultrahigh brightness and transverse coherence. The conceptual basis of the MAX IV 3 GeV ring project combines a robust lattice design with a number of innovative engineering choices: compact, multifunctional magnet blocks, narrow low-conductance NEG-coated copper vacuum chambers and a 100 MHz radio-frequency system with passively operated third-harmonic cavities for bunch lengthening. In this paper, commissioning and first-year operational results of the MAX IV 3 GeV ring are presented, highlighting those aspects that are believed to be most relevant for future MBA-based storage rings. The commissioning experience of the MAX IV 3 GeV ring offers in this way an opportunity for validation of concepts that are likely to be essential ingredients of future diffraction-limited light sources.

The resonant scattering and diffraction beamline P09 at PETRA III at DESY is equipped with a 14 T vertical field split-pair magnet. A helium-3 refrigerator is available that can be fitted inside the magnet's variable-temperature insert. Here the results of a series of experiments aimed at determining the beam conditions permitting operations with the He-3 insert are presented. By measuring the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic phase transition occurring at 2.1 K in the Jahn–Teller compound TmVO4, it is found that the photon flux at P09 must be attenuated down to 1.5 × 109 photons s−1for the sample to remain at temperatures below 800 mK. Despite such a reduction of the incident flux and the subsequent use of a Cu(111) analyzer, the resonant X-ray magnetic scattering signal at the TmLIIIabsorption edge associated with the spin-density wave in TmNi2B2C below 1.5 K is intense enough to permit a complete study in magnetic field and at sub-Kelvin temperatures to be carried out.

A compact lattice and small magnet apertures will be the main characteristics of future diffraction-limited storage rings, adding difficulties for the design of the vacuum system of these machines. The use of NEG coatings and distributed absorbers could provide a solution to overcome these challenges., Some of the characteristics of recent ultralow-emittance storage-ring designs and possibly future diffraction-limited storage rings are a compact lattice combined with small magnet apertures. Such requirements present a challenge for the design and performance of the vacuum system. The vacuum system should provide the required vacuum pressure for machine operation and be able to handle the heat load from synchrotron radiation. Small magnet apertures result in the conductance of the chamber being low, and lumped pumps are ineffective. One way to provide the required vacuum level is by distributed pumping, which can be realised by the use of a non-evaporable getter (NEG) coating of the chamber walls. It may not be possible to use crotch absorbers to absorb the heat from the synchrotron radiation because an antechamber is difficult to realise with such a compact lattice. To solve this, the chamber walls can work as distributed absorbers if they are made of a material with good thermal conductivity, and distributed cooling is used at the location where the synchrotron radiation hits the wall. The vacuum system of the 3 GeV storage ring of MAX IV is used as an example of possible solutions for vacuum technologies for diffraction-limited storage rings.

Third-generation low-emittance storage-ring light sources based on double- and triple-bend cells and undulator magnets have been in operation around the world for more than two decades. On the horizon is a new generation based on the multi-bend achromat (MBA) lattice concept promising two to three orders of magnitude higher brightness than is available in today's sources. In this paper, the challenges inherent in designing MBA lattices, as well as potential solutions, are described. Topics covered include lattice concepts, scaling of storage-ring performance, brightness optimization, nonlinear dynamics, beam lifetime and injection schemes.

A compact and portable magnet system for measuring magnetic dichroism in resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering (SX-RIXS) has been developed at the beamline BL07LSU in SPring-8. A magnetic circuit composed of Nd–Fe–B permanent magnets, which realised ∼0.25 T at the center of an 11 mm gap, was rotatable around the axis perpendicular to the X-ray scattering plane. Using the system, a SX-RIXS spectrum was obtained under the application of the magnetic field at an angle parallel, nearly 45° or perpendicular to the incident X-rays. A dedicated sample stage was also designed to be as compact as possible, making it possible to perform SX-RIXS measurements at arbitrary incident angles by rotating the sample stage in the gap between the magnetic poles. This system enables facile studies of magnetic dichroism in SX-RIXS for various experimental geometries of the sample and the magnetic field. A brief demonstration of the application is presented.

Two APPLE II undulators installed on the Diamond I10 beamline have all four magnet arrays shiftable and thus can generate linear polarization at any arbitrary angle from 0° to 180°, as well as all other states of elliptical polarization. To characterize the emitted radiation polarization state from one APPLE II undulator, the complete polarization measurement was performed using a multilayer-based soft X-ray polarimeter. The measurement results appear to show that the linear polarization angle offset is about 6° compared with other measurements at 712 eV, equivalent to an undulator jaw phase offset of 1.1 mm. In addition, the polarization states of various ellipticities have also been measured as a function of the undulator row phase.

In order to minimize the size of the X-ray source for a U-shaped rotating anticathode X-ray generator, the electron beam is focused over a short distance by a combined-function bending magnet. Simulation predicts that the beam brightness will reach almost 500 kW mm−2 for a 120 keV/75 mA beam., A new type of rotating anticathode X-ray generator, where an electron beam of up to 60 keV irradiates the inner surface of a U-shaped Cu anticathode, has achieved a beam brilliance of 130 kW mm−2 (at 2.3 kW). A higher-flux electron beam is expected from simulation by optimizing the geometry of a combined-function-type magnet instead of the fringing field of the bending magnet. In order to minimize the size of the X-ray source the electron beam has been focused over a short distance by a new combined-function bending magnet, whose geometrical shape was determined by simulation using the Opera-3D, General Particle Tracer and CST-STUDIO codes. The result of the simulation clearly shows that the role of combined functions in both the bending and the steering magnets is important for focusing the beam to a small size. FWHM sizes of the beam are predicted by simulation to be 0.45 mm (horizontal) and 0.05 mm (vertical) for a 120 keV/75 mA beam, of which the effective brilliance is about 500 kW mm−2 on the supposition of a two-dimensional Gaussian distribution. High-power tests have begun using a high-voltage 120 kV/75 mA power supply for the X-ray generator instead of 60 kV/100 mA. The beam focus size on the target will be verified in the experiments.

Demagnetization owing to high-energy electron irradiation has been analyzed for permanent magnets used in insertion devices of synchrotron radiation sources, using the Monte Carlo code FLUKA. The experimental data of a thermally treated Nd(2)Fe(14)B permanent magnet with a copper or a tantalum block at electron energies ranging from 2 to 8 GeV were compared with the calculation data of the absorbed doses, photoneutron production distributions and star densities. The results indicate that low-energy photoneutrons and bremsstrahlung photons are not involved in the demagnetization process, and suggest that the star density owing to the photoneutrons is strongly correlated with the demagnetization process.

Electron beam stability is very important for third-generation light sources, especially for the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), whose ground vibration is much larger than other light sources. The mechanical stability of the magnet girder assemblies (MGAs) in a storage ring is essential for electron beam stability and performance. In order to improve the mechanical stability of the RD MGAs in the storage ring of the SSRF, the number of MGAs in each lattice cell has been modified from three to five, and the girder structure has been optimized. Vibration measurements have been performed on the modified MGA prototype (the longest and heaviest MGA in the cell) to investigate mechanical stability and the influence of cooling water on magnet vibration. Measurement results show that the modified MGA has improved the first eigenfrequency from 5.9 Hz in RD time to 21.9 Hz in the lateral and 22.5 Hz in the vertical direction; it has a good mechanical stability performance compared with other third-generation light source projects; and the influence of cooling water on the magnet vibration is about 4%, less than that of the ground vibration.

The cryogenic permanent-magnet undulator (CPMU) is a novel insertion device recently proposed at SPring-8, in which permanent magnets (PMs) are cooled to cryogenic temperatures to improve the magnetic performances, such as remanence and coercivity. A new measurement system for carrying out high-precision magnetic field mapping using a Hall probe has been developed in order to characterize the magnetic field generated by PM arrays at cryogenic temperatures. In this system, alignment of the Hall probe was dynamically performed by means of detecting the variation in its transverse position using optical laser beams introduced into the vacuum chamber. Magnetic measurements of a CPMU prototype were made at different temperatures in order to investigate variations of the magnetic performances owing to temperature. The maximum remanence deduced from the average peak value of the field profile was found to be close to that obtained from a former measurement with a single piece of the same PM material. In addition, the error components in the field profile were found to be insensitive to temperature in terms of the electron trajectory and phase error. This result suggests that the field correction of CPMUs can be performed based on the field profile measured at room temperature, which considerably reduces the task and time necessary for construction of CPMUs.

Top-up operation allows SPring-8 to provide highly stable X-ray beams with arbitrary filling patterns. The implementation of top-up operation is described, with a focus on the simultaneous achievement of stability of stored current, beam orbit, purity of an isolated single bunch, and beam injection efficiency. Stored-current fluctuations have been routinely reduced to a level of 10(-3). Stored-beam oscillation on frequent beam injection, which was originally regarded as the most serious problem, has been successfully suppressed to a sufficiently low level that it never perturbs imaging experiments. Current impurities in nominally empty buckets have been reduced to a level of 10(-9) over more than one week of operation, making possible the measurement of time-resolved spectra using high-current bunches. Finally, excellent injection efficiency, higher than 80%, is routinely obtained, even for small undulator gaps, which is critical for preventing radiation damage to insertion-device magnets and to reduce leakage radiation. The process of achieving highly stabilized top-up operation at SPring-8 and its utility for user experiments are described.

A new facility for high-pressure diffraction and spectroscopy using diamond anvil high-pressure cells has been built at the Advanced Light Source on Beamline 12.2.2. This beamline benefits from the hard X-radiation generated by a 6 Tesla superconducting bending magnet (superbend). Useful x-ray flux is available between 5 keV and 35 keV. The radiation is transferred from the superbend to the experimental enclosure by the brightness preserving optics of the beamline. These optics are comprised of: a plane parabola collimating mirror (M1), followed by a Kohzu monochromator vessel with a Si(111) crystals (E/{Delta}E {approx} 7000) and a W/B{sub 4}C multilayer (E/{Delta}E {approx} 100), and then a toroidal focusing mirror (M2) with variable focusing distance. The experimental enclosure contains an automated beam positioning system, a set of slits, ion chambers, the sample positioning goniometry and area detectors (CCD or image-plate detector). Future developments aim at the installation of a second end station dedicated for in situ laser-heating on one hand and a dedicated high-pressure single-crystal station, applying both monochromatic as well as polychromatic techniques.

A novel synchrotron radiation source is proposed that utilizes bulk-type high-temperature superconductors (HTSCs) as permanent magnets (PMs) by in situ magnetization. Arrays of HTSC blocks magnetized by external magnetic fields are placed below and above the electron path instead of conventional PMs, generating a periodic magnetic field with an offset. Two methods are presented to magnetize the HTSCs and eliminate the field offset, enabling the HTSC arrays to work as a synchrotron radiation source. An analytical formula to calculate the peak field achieved in a device based on this scheme is derived in a two-dimensional form for comparison with synchrotron radiation sources using conventional PMs. Experiments were performed to demonstrate the principle of the proposed scheme and the results have been found to be very promising.

A new X-ray undulator has been designed and constructed which produces linearly polarized X-rays in which the plane of polarization can be oriented to a user selectable angle, from horizontal to vertical. Based on the Apple-II elliptically polarizing undulator (EPU), the undulator rotates the angle of the linear polarization by a simple longitudinal motion of the undulator magnets. Combined with the circular and elliptical polarization capabilities of the EPU operating in the standard mode, this new undulator produces soft X-ray radiation with versatile polarization control. This paper describes the magnetic structure of the device and presents an analysis of the magnetic field with varying undulator parameters. The variable linear polarization capability is then exhibited by measuring the X-ray absorption spectrum of an oriented polytetrafluoroethylene thin film. This experiment, which measures the linear dichroism of the sample at two peaks near the C 1s absorption edge, demonstrates the continuous polarization rotation capabilities of the undulator.

The magnet design of the MAX IV 3 GeV storage ring replaces the conventional support girder + discrete magnets scheme of previous third-generation light sources with a compact integrated design having several consecutive magnet elements precision-machined out of a common solid iron block., The MAX IV 3 GeV storage ring, currently under construction, pursues the goal of low electron beam emittance by using a multi-bend achromat magnet lattice, which is realised by having several consecutive magnet elements precision-machined out of a common solid iron block, 2.3–3.4 m long. With this magnet design solution, instead of having 1320 individual magnets, the MAX IV 3 GeV storage ring is built up using 140 integrated ‘magnet block’ units, containing all these magnet elements. Major features of this magnet block design are compactness, vibration stability and that the alignment of magnet elements within each unit is given by the mechanical accuracy of the CNC machining rather than individual field measurement and adjustment. This article presents practical engineering details of implementing this magnet design solution, and mechanical + magnetic field measurement results from the magnet production series. At the time of writing (spring 2014), the production series, which is totally outsourced to industry, is roughly half way through, with mechanical/magnetic QA conforming to specifications. It is the conclusion of the authors that the MAX IV magnet block concept, which has sometimes been described as new or innovative, is from a manufacturing point of view simply a collection of known mature production methods and measurement procedures, which can be executed at fixed cost with a low level of risk.

One of the main principles in electrodynamics, the change of magnetic field flux inducing an EMF in a wire coil, is applied for magnetic measurement. A scheme and the main parameters of the magnetic measurement system are described. The system was successfully used for magnetic measurement of a 7 T superconducting wiggler for LSU CAMD; results are presented.

The European Synchrotron Radiation facility is presently operating 47 segments of insertion devices (IDs). A record brilliance of 1 × 1020 photons s−1 (0.1% bandwidth)−1 mm−2 mrad−2 has been reached. Almost all devices are built with permanent magnets with or without iron pole pieces. They have been mechanically and magnetically designed and field-measured in house. Multipole shimming has been applied to all devices to remove the integrated dipole and higher-order multipole fields, thereby reducing the interaction between the IDs and the stored beam. For all undulators, the field errors have been corrected further using spectrum shimming in order to achieve ideal spectral brilliance on all harmonic numbers from 1 to 15. A significant effort has been made to optimize the magnet terminations for both field-integral correction and phasing. A phasing scheme of the undulator segments has been developed which allows the independent manufacture and operation of individual segments. Several designs for undulator phasing are presented, together with a comparison between hybrid and pure-permanent-magnet technology. A new type of variable-polarization helical undulator is presented.

In a low-emittance synchrotron radiation source it is difficult to provide magnet-free long straight sections (MLSSs) a few tens of metres long because introducing MLSSs to the radiation source causes symmetry breaking and markedly reduces dynamic stability. To overcome this difficulty and realize MLSSs in such a ring, a method of building MLSSs is proposed starting from the stable lattice with high symmetry and proceeding via a transient lattice.

Among the several available X-ray optics for synchrotron radiation producing micrometre and submicrometre beams with high intensity, the X-ray waveguide (WG) can provide the smallest hard X-ray beam in one direction. A drawback of this optics is that, owing to the divergence at the exit, a nanometre-sized spot on the sample can only be obtained if this is within a few micrometres of the WG exit. Another limitation is that in planar WGs the beam is compressed in only one direction. Here, using a dynamically bent elliptical Si/Pt mirror, the guided X-ray beam has been refocused at approximately 1 m from the waveguide exit. The large working distance between the device and the submicrometre focus leaves some space for sample environment (vacuum chamber, furnace, cryostat, magnets, high-pressure device etc.) and allows cross-coupled geometries with two WGs for efficient compression in two directions.

In a standard insertion device, such as a wiggler or undulator, the force between two rows of magnets increases exponentially as the gap between the rows decreases. This force is usually managed by a powerful mechanical gap adjustor, sometimes with the aid of springs at small values of gap. This paper is a description of how the magnetic forces can be nulled using auxiliary counterforce magnets.

A four-channel ionization chamber has been designed, constructed and tested. This ionization chamber allows X-ray absorption spectra to be collected in transmission from up to four samples simultaneously. This results in spectra that are free of systematic uncertainty in relative energy alignment introduced by scan-to-scan stability of the monochromator or of numerical uncertainty associated with a post-processing alignment algorithm, allowing, in a single shot, an absolute measure of edge shift between four samples of different valence. As four samples can be measured in parallel, the time expended over the course of an experiment to cycle the measurement environment between its rest state and the measurement condition is substantially reduced. The ionization chamber is simple in design and could be implemented at virtually any XAFS beamline with a horizontal fan of radiation such as that provided by a bend magnet or wiggler.

Measurement of integrated magnetic induction is an important part of the construction of insertion devices. The so-called `flipping coil system' is normally utilized to characterize the integrated multipole components of the device, a requirement which varies from one storage ring to another. A Helmholtz coil system is used to determine a magnetization vector of each magnet piece in the device. Both systems are designed to measure the integrated magnetic flux to deduce the necessary quantities using the known relationship. We have developed an unconventional system which has a continuously rotating mechanism that allows the use of a lock-in amplifier instead of an integrator or a voltmeter. Detailed descriptions of the equipment are given.

A short-period in-vacuum undulator for the NSLS X-ray Ring has been developed in a collaboration between SPring-8 and the NSLS, and has achieved its project design goals during commissioning studies. The device is called IVUN (in-vacuum undulator) and employs magnet arrays (31 periods, with an 11 mm period) developed at SPring-8, while the requisite vacuum chamber and mechanical systems were developed at the NSLS. At a magnet gap of 3.3 mm, IVUN produces 4.6 keV radiation in the fundamental, with useful photon fluxes in both the second and third harmonics. The magnet gap is adjustable between 2 and 10 mm. A brief overview of IVUN is presented, together with initial commissioning results: the dependence of electron-beam lifetime and bremsstrahlung on magnet gap, and the output radiation spectrum.

The magnet lattice for the Siam Photon Source, the first storage ring for synchrotron radiation research in Thailand, has been designed. The storage ring has a double-bend achromat lattice and fourfold symmetry with four straight sections. Although the magnet lattice is relaxed, an emittance value of 72 π nm rad has been obtained, which is only 1.4 times as large as the theoretical minimum emittance with eight bending magnets. The dynamic aperture is found to be much larger than the physical aperture.

A superconducting 7 T wiggler is under fabrication in a collaboration between Budker INP and LSU CAMD. The wiggler magnet has been successfully tested inside a bath cryostat and a maximum field of 7.2 T was achieved after six quenches. The main parameters of the wiggler and the method of the wiggler installation onto the storage ring are discussed.

As a consequence of the developments of in-vacuum undulators, where permanent magnet arrays are located in an ultrahigh vacuum, the in-vacuum mini-gap undulator with very short period has been successful in the X-ray ring of NSLS in collaboration with SPring-8, producing a new concept for synchrotron radiation facilities. The key feature of the concept is the combination of in-vacuum mini-gap undulators and a low-emittance ring with moderate beam energy. In other words there are possibilities for the design of a moderate-cost medium-sized synchrotron radiation facility, the performance of which may be comparable with that of the existing large-scale facilities. Here the performance of in-vacuum undulators is described, particularly of the mini-gap type. Also described is the essence of the new concept for synchrotron radiation facilities, the so-called new third-generation light source.

This study employs the three-dimensional magnetostatic code TOSCA to assess numerically the effects of NdFeB magnets with non-unit magnetic permeability on an elliptically polarizing undulator. A reduction of a few percent of the on-axis magnetic field strength is predicted. In addition, a deviation of ±100 G cm uncompensated dipole steering is predicted in a phase shift of 180° for the elliptically polarizing undulator EPU5.6 (having a period length of 56 mm) at the minimum gap of 18 mm, which is related primarily to the configuration of the device end scheme. Results presented herein demonstrate that implementing an active compensation mechanism is a prerequisite for minimizing the orbit distortion during phase-shift adjustment, particularly for operating such a polarizing undulator in a third-generation machine having a median energy similar to that of the 1.5 GeV storage ring at SRRC.

An in-vacuum minipole (short-period) insertion device has been developed in a collaboration between SPring-8 and the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). The magnetic arrays were constructed by SPring-8 and were installed in a chamber with mechanical parts in the X-ray ring (E = 2.584 GeV) at the NSLS in May 1997. The device is made of permanent magnets with 30.5 periods and a period length of 11 mm. It is designed to produce fundamental radiation at 4.6 keV, and, with a modest value of deflection parameter (K = 0.7 at 3.3 mm gap), enables higher harmonics to be used for a variety of experiments.

RADIA is a three-dimensional magnetostatics computer code optimized for the design of undulators and wigglers. It solves boundary magnetostatics problems with magnetized and current-carrying volumes using the boundary integral approach. The magnetized volumes can be arbitrary polyhedrons with non-linear (iron) or linear anisotropic (permanent magnet) characteristics. The current-carrying elements can be straight or curved blocks with rectangular cross sections. Boundary conditions are simulated by the technique of mirroring. Analytical formulae used for the computation of the field produced by a magnetized volume of a polyhedron shape are detailed. The RADIA code is written in object-oriented C++ and interfaced to Mathematica [Mathematica is a registered trademark of Wolfram Research, Inc.]. The code outperforms currently available finite-element packages with respect to the CPU time of the solver and accuracy of the field integral estimations. An application of the code to the case of a wedge-pole undulator is presented.

Two new identical insertion devices have been designed for the Daresbury SRS. They are 2 T permanent-magnet multipole wigglers that will provide high flux in the X-ray region. This paper describes the magnetic and mechanical design of the arrays of steel pole pieces and permanent-magnet blocks. Also given is the engineering design of the support structure that will cope with the very large forces present while maintaining high levels of precision in gap setting and parallelism. The engineering design has been fully assessed using finite-element techniques to predict the deflections of critical parts of the structure. These two devices are due to be installed into the SRS by the end of 1998.

A compact racetrack-type 700 MeV storage ring (HiSOR) has been constructed at Hiroshima Synchrotron Radiation Center (HSRC). As the ring was planned for synchrotron radiation research on science and technology using VUV to X-rays up to 5 keV with limited size and cost, the ring was designed (i) to realize a high magnetic field (2.7 T) using conventional dipole magnets for higher critical energy, and (ii) to include two straight sections for insertion devices. A linear undulator (25–300 eV) and a new-type helical/linear undulator were installed at the two straight sections. The latter undulator consists of upper and lower jaws, as in a planar undulator; each jaw consists of one fixed magnet array at the centre and two magnet arrays on both sides. By longitudinal displacement of the side magnet arrays, the phase between the vertical and horizontal magnetic fields, and therefore the polarization (right- or left-circular, elliptical, linear) can be selected. The helical/linear undulator gives almost perfect circular polarization at 4–40 eV in the helical configuration without changing the phase of the magnet arrays, as well as linearly polarized light at 3–300 eV in the linear configuration.

There are several ways of producing circularly polarized light, such as using asymmetric devices, crossed undulators etc. The SPring-8 helical undulator introduces a simple way of producing both horizontal and vertical fields in one undulator. All the magnet arrays are arranged above and below the plane of the electron orbit, so there is no limitation of access from the sides of the undulator. For the SPring-8 BL25SU, two helical undulators will be installed in tandem, and the helicity of the polarization can be switched at up to 10 Hz using five kicker magnets.

A 700 MeV synchrotron radiation source optimized in order to be incorporated in the university laboratory is under commissioning at Hiroshima University. The storage ring is of a racetrack type with two long straight sections for installing undulators. The bending field is as strong as 2.7 T, produced by normal-conducting magnet technology, and delivers synchrotron radiation with a critical wavelength of 1.42 nm. The strong magnetic field also enables a low-energy injection scheme to be employed owing to the fast radiation damping. A 150 MeV microtron has been adopted as the injector.

A local bump feedback system is under construction to correct the orbit distortion caused by the magnetic field errors of a double-array undulator used to generate linear and circular polarization of light for a soft X-ray beamline. The local bump orbit is created by steering coils several turns long and four sets of steering magnets. The kick angle of the long steering coils and the steering magnets is determined according to the motion of the undulator and by detecting the beam position.

In this work, a 1 m long Sasaki-type elliptically polarizing undulator (EPU) prototype with 5.6 cm period length is used to examine the mechanical design feasibility as well as magnetic field performance. The magnetic field characteristics of the EPU5.6 prototype at various phase shifts and gap motion are described. The field errors from mechanical tolerances, magnet block errors, end field effects and phase/gap motion effects are analysed. The procedures related to correcting the field with the block position tuning, iron shimming and the trim blocks at both ends are outlined.

A compact environmental chamber with a furnace operating in the range from room temperature to about 900 K has been built for a high-temperature nuclear-resonant Bragg scattering study. The compact size (75 mm diameter and 70 mm depth) allows an external magnetic field to be applied from outside permanent Nd–Fe–B alloy magnets; a magnetic field up to 1000 G has been obtained. The chamber can be mounted on a precise θ–2θ goniometer so that in situ observations of X-ray diffraction from a single crystal can be carried out. The temperature is measured by two thermocouples placed at the top and back of the sample and controlled by a PID controller. The temperature fluctuation of the chamber is less than ±1 K.

Reconstruction of the Photon Factory storage ring (PF ring; 2.5 GeV) is now in progress to provide very brilliant synchrotron radiation to users, i.e. the emittance is being reduced by a factor of five. Components, such as the quadrupole and sextupole magnets, vacuum chambers, beamlines and beam-position monitors, are being replaced by new ones in 16 normal-cell sections of the PF ring. The accelerating cavities, injection systems and control systems are also being replaced. Operation will commence when the improvements are completed on 1 October 1997.

A modelling method, in which a single magnet block is divided into several sub-blocks, is described. It is assumed that each sub-block is polarized homogeneously. The sub-block polarizations are derived with a genetic algorithm, which analytically calculates the total magnet flux density values generated by all sub-blocks and fits it to the values measured at the corresponding points in the vicinity of the magnet. The sub-block modellings accomplished show notable improvement in predicting the magnet flux density within the undulator gap when compared with a model based on homogeneously polarized blocks. The sub-block model can also be used when discarding bad magnets from a set. Finally, the results show that the inhomogeneities in individual magnets are one of the major reasons for poor predictability of the undulator field in hybrid devices.

The x–y coupling effect, especially the tilt of the beam profiles, in the Super-ALIS compact electron storage ring has been effectively eliminated. The main feature of this method is the suppression of the most harmful Fourier components of the skew-quadrupole perturbation by using just one thin skew-quadrupole magnet. Therefore, the method should be simple and effective for coupling suppression in compact storage rings that have little space for correction instruments.

The beam commissioning of the SPring-8 synchrotron was started in December 1996. In the first ten days, the coarse tuning of the pulse magnets for beam injection from the linac, and the excitation pattern of the dipole and the quadrupole magnets, were accomplished during energy ramping of the beam. The acceleration of the beam up to 8 GeV proceeded smoothly. From January to February 1997, the fine-tuning of the synchrotron was continued and the operating parameters of all of the synchrotron equipment were decided.

A new class of undulator capable of producing linear and/or helical polarization is described. The magnetic field, power, spectral flux, brilliance and interactions with the electron beam of such undulators are discussed. The case of Helios, an undulator presently installed on the ESRF, is discussed in detail.