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The article discusses the 10th anniversary of the NSLS-II (National Synchrotron Light Source II) facility, which has seen significant growth and development over the past decade. The facility now has 29 operational beamlines, compared to the initial 6, and has hosted thousands of users and published numerous papers. The article also highlights the recent addition of the HEX beamline and the ongoing construction of three new beamlines as part of the NEXT-II project. The NSLS-II facility is focused on advancing clean energy technologies, materials science, and various scientific disciplines. The article concludes by emphasizing the facility's commitment to continued growth and delivering cutting-edge science in the future. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the development of advanced fly scans using the Mamba software project at the High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) in Beijing, China. The Mamba software aims to provide a reliable and flexible framework for beamline experiments, with a focus on high framerates and data throughputs. The article explores the architectural essentials of fly scans and discusses issues related to motion control, triggering sequences, detectors, and other fields of interest in fly scans. The document discusses the challenges and potential solutions for conducting fly scans with framerates of 10 kHz or higher at HEPS, including limited motor encoder ports, performance limitations of detectors and readout software, and the unsuitability of stepping motors for high-frequency scans. It proposes solutions such as using DeltaTau PowerPMAC for encoder processing and implementing scan fragmentation to address clock drift. The document also discusses the potential for signal distortion in high-frequency data captures and the need for improved hardware/software system architecture for data processing. The source code for the Bubo software is available as part of the open-source edition of Mamba. [Extracted from the article]

The Soochow University Beamline, located at the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory in China, is a Soft X-ray beamline designed for studying energy-related materials and devices. It operates in the energy range of 45 eV–1100 eV and is specifically tailored for investigating Li, B, C, N, O, F K-edges, and most L-edges of transition metals. The beamline offers various capabilities, including X-ray absorption, photon in photon out, and in situ/operando studies of energy materials and devices in gas/liquid environments. It has been successful in producing high-quality research papers and is open to users worldwide. The beamline is a collaborative effort between Soochow University and the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, with funding from Soochow University. It is the first synchrotron radiation beamline in China to be funded by a university. [Extracted from the article]

In addition, the performance requirements of computing components like microprocessors, disks, and network interfaces are increasing more slowly than the IT infrastructure requirements of synchrotron facilities. For instance, upgraded facilities could generate tens of petabytes of data annually, and kilohertz real-time data analysis is anticipated. X-ray facilities are currently going through a wave of upgrades. [Extracted from the article]

ChemMatCARS is a facility located in the USA that specializes in synchrotron X-ray studies of chemical and materials crystallography, liquid interface science, and X-ray scattering. The facility has been used by various research groups to investigate molecular science in areas such as chemistry, materials research, biology, and engineering. Liquid interfaces are studied at ChemMatCARS to understand interfacial self-assembly, molecular interactions, chemical reactivity, and the preparation and characterization of functional assemblies. The facility offers a range of X-ray techniques and detectors, as well as user-friendly software for data collection and analysis. ChemMatCARS also engages in outreach activities and diversity programs to expand access to their facility. The facility is currently undergoing upgrades to enhance its scientific capabilities. The article provides examples of research conducted at ChemMatCARS, including the study of interfacial electrostatics, separations of metallic ions, and the synthesis of 2D and nanomaterials. The text discusses the research conducted at the liquid interface scattering facility at ChemMatCARS. The facility focuses on studying various topics such as solvent extraction processes, nanomaterial synthesis, tunable nanoparticle arrays, and life processes at liquid interfaces. The research aims to understand the chemical species present at the liquid interface, their arrangement, and the mechanisms involved in ion transport. The facility utilizes X-ray measurements to probe these processes and has made significant discoveries in specific ion effects, the role of anions, and the [Extracted from the article]

Protein crystallography has been a workhorse in drug discovery for decades [[39]], and the implementation of the first MX synchrotron beamline at the ESRF was the go-ahead for most synchrotrons, leading to 90% of X-ray single-crystal structure determinations currently coming from synchrotrons [[40]]. The famous quote by the Bavarian comedian Karl Valentin from the early twentieth century might cross people's minds when reflecting on the challenges of the twenty-first century: " I Die Zukunft war früher auch besser i " ["Even the future was better in the past"]. Industry process transformation has an amazing potential of saving CO SB 2 sb . For example, in steel production (responsible for about 6% of CO SB 2 sb emission worldwide [[6]]) ULCOS [[7]], an ultra-low CO SB 2 sb steel-making project of industries and academia (47 partners, 15 European countries), aims to reduce CO SB 2 sb emissions by 50%. [Extracted from the article]

The German Committee for Research with Synchrotron Radiation (KFS) is responsible for coordinating and developing strategies for synchrotron radiation applications at national and international sources. The committee acts as a link between users, facilities, and funding agencies, providing advice on scientific topics and accessibility for researchers. The committee consists of nine elected scientists, coopted members, and guests representing various German and European photon facilities. The election for the 13th KFS took place in September 2023, with 1,100 valid ballots returned. The new chair is Christian Gutt, and Birgit Kanngießer is the co-chair. The committee also has members responsible for specific areas such as digitalization, European collaborations, instrumentation, sustainability, transfer and industry, young investigator and user affairs, and public relations. [Extracted from the article]

The Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL) in South Korea is a leading scientific facility that attracts thousands of researchers each year. PAL operates the Pohang Light Source (PLS) and PAL-XFEL, which are synchrotron accelerators used for various scientific experiments. In 2013, the Industrial Science Support Center (ISSC) was established at PAL to provide a platform for industries to access synchrotron science. The ISSC offers expedited beamtime access and comprehensive support for industries conducting experiments. The center has supported various industries, including secondary batteries, semiconductors, and biotechnology. PAL aims to expand its industrial science support and enhance beamline efficiency in the future. [Extracted from the article]

Synchrotron facilities, such as MAX IV, are becoming crucial tools for materials and process research, as well as catalysts for interdisciplinary and cross-organizational collaborations. These facilities, particularly fourth-generation synchrotrons like MAX IV, provide brilliant X-rays and fast detectors, offering a unique toolbox for material science and innovation in the shift towards a sustainable society. However, the knowledge of utilizing these tools is not widespread enough in the industry. Collaborative platforms, such as the MetalBeams network in the metals industry, the Treesearch platform in the forest industry, and the Northern Lights on Food initiative in the food industry, are examples of successful efforts to bridge the gap between academia and industry and maximize the potential of synchrotron facilities. Expanding these collaborative platforms to other sectors and involving industry in the evolution of research infrastructures can further enhance sustainable innovation. [Extracted from the article]

The Elettra synchrotron radiation facility in Trieste, Italy has been operating since 1994 and is currently the only facility operating at 2.0 or 2.4 GeV. Plans are underway to construct a new facility, Elettra 2.0, which will have improved capabilities and a wider range of experiments. The project was approved in 2017 and is expected to be operational in 2027, offering diverse beamlines for various energy ranges and advanced imaging and spectroscopy techniques. The construction will include 12 new beamlines and upgrades to existing ones. [Extracted from the article]

The National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) celebrated its 30th anniversary in October 2023. The event brought together pioneers in the synchrotron radiation field, current and retired NSRRC staff, users, and government officials. The NSRRC has made significant contributions to Taiwan's synchrotron light source development, with the Taiwan Light Source (TLS) being the first synchrotron accelerator in Taiwan and the third globally. The NSRRC has also established collaborations with international research institutions and has expanded its engagements within and beyond the realm of science. The center aims to continue enhancing its facilities and infrastructure to support frontier scientific exploration. [Extracted from the article]

ALBA Synchrotron in Spain is currently undergoing an upgrade to become ALBA II, a 4th generation facility. The upgrade will involve expanding the storage ring, adding new beamlines, and renovating existing instrumentation. ALBA II aims to enhance research capabilities in areas such as life science, energy, and information technology, while also promoting collaboration and industrial innovation. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2031, with a focus on environmental sustainability and energy efficiency. Funding for the project has been provided by the Spanish Government, the Generalitat de Catalunya, and the European Union. [Extracted from the article]

The University of Wisconsin Synchrotron Radiation Center (SRC) held its annual users' meeting at Stoughton, WI, on October 23-24, 2009, with over 90 people from 30 institutions in attendance. Events included updates on the facility status, two poster sessions, the Aladdin Lamp Award session, several memorial sessions for Dr. Cliff Olson, and invited talks representing current research at SRC, along with related topics. The Aladdin Lamp Award was presented to the finishing graduate student with the best dissertation research, as judged by an extended abstract and an invited presentation. Additional prizes were given for the best poster in each of the poster sessions. Meetings between the SRC user community and National Science Foundation representatives were also held to discuss the future of the Aladdin electron storage ring at SRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the new developments in the application of the x-ray standing wave technique. Major strengths of the technique; Emission process of the technique; Details of the further applications and motivations of the technique.

This document provides an overview of the plans and developments for the software and computing infrastructure at Diamond, a synchrotron facility in the UK. The upcoming Diamond-II project will upgrade the facility and improve the brightness and coherence of synchrotron light. The article highlights the need for a new software architecture to meet the demands of the upgraded facility, including a service-based and web-technology-based paradigm. The upgrade will also involve adopting container-based deployment using Kubernetes and updating software development environments and processes. The goal is to enhance data processing, experiment orchestration, data analysis and visualization, information management, security and access control, and user interface, ultimately enabling transformative scientific research across various disciplines. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the development and implementation of a new beamline experiments control system called BLISS at the ESRF. BLISS aims to support the upgrade of the ESRF to the "Extremely Brilliant Source" (EBS), a 4th generation light source with increased brilliance and coherence of the X-ray beam. BLISS provides a modular architecture, a Python-based control system, centralized configuration and system-wide services, user-friendly configuration application, additional services, command line interface (CLI), classic shell, web terminal, asynchronous execution model, uniform hardware control, scanning engine, and decoupling of data acquisition and data saving. BLISS has been successfully deployed on over 30 beamlines and is planned to be adopted on all beamlines by 2025. The BLISS beamline control system effectively manages data storage and access for real-time processing, utilizing Redis as a buffer and dedicated writer processes for long-term storage. BLISS also includes various tools for file writing, memory management, and automation. The project follows industry best practices and releases new versions every 6 months. Overall, BLISS is a comprehensive and innovative beamline control system that supports a wide range of experiments at ESRF. [Extracted from the article]

ALBA is a low-emittance, 3 GeV synchrotron light source located near Barcelona. It is funded equally by the Spanish central and the Catalan autonomous governments. Seven state-of-the-art beamlines (BL), comprising soft and hard X-rays, are in operation to satisfy the requirements of the user community. This paper updates the status of the facility, focusing on its transition from commissioning to user operation, which has taken place during the last two years. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The 2013 ALS User Meeting, held from October 7–9, began with a welcome from Users' Executive Committee chair Corie Ralston and Berkeley Lab director Paul Alivisatos. ALS director Roger Falcone followed with a “state of the ALS” presentation that reminded everyone of the ALS mission: “Supporting users in doing outstanding science in a safe environment.” Falcone gave the 400-plus meeting attendees an update on ALS beamlines, which included good news about increased user numbers thanks to the new RAPIDD access system, enhanced robotics, and remote capabilities. Falcone reflected that ALS metrics continue to represent the highly productive users—the number of journal articles and papers per user based on ALS research has continued to grow in the past year. Looking forward, Falcone touched on how a proposed ALS upgrade to a diffraction-limited light source would increase scientific capabilities. The Lab's government relations representative, Don Medley, followed with a presentation on how to talk about science with elected representatives. Medley spoke about framing discussions in terms of the “value of our country's science ecosystem.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The free-electron laser (FEL) sources FLASH in Hamburg, LCLS at Stanford, and FERMI in Trieste provide XUV to soft X-ray radiation (FLASH and FERMI) or soft to hard X-ray radiation (LCLS) with unprecedented parameters in terms of ultrashort pulse length, high photon flux, and coherence. These properties make FELs ideal tools for studying ultrafast dynamics in matter on a previously unaccessible level. This paper first reviews results obtained at FEL sources during the last few years in the field of magnetism research. We start with pioneering experiments at FLASH demonstrating the feasibility of magnetic scattering at FELs [1, 2], then present pump–probe scattering experiments [3, 4] as well as the first FEL magnetic imaging experiments [5], and finally discuss a limitation of the scattering methods due to a quenching of the magnetic scattering signal by high-fluence FEL pulses [6]. All of the presented experiments exploit the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism effect [7, 8] to obtain element-specific magnetic scattering contrast, as known from synchrotron experiments [9–12]. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A wide spectrum of topics and ideas united by the common theme of operation of synchrotron light sources in special modes is covered in this edition ofSRN. The collection of articles opens with a paper by M. Aiba and co-workers from Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland. They describe the Swiss Light Source that, over one decade of operation, has reached the exemplary reliability and beam stability to provide a base for ambitious development tasks for new operation modes like short X-ray pulse generation by laser slicing, synchrotron light polarization switching with a rate of 1 Hz employing large local orbit manipulations, and obtaining an ultra-low vertical emittance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Held only weeks after the SRS had delivered its last photon beams (from September 11-12, 2008), the 2008 UK Synchrotron Radiation User Meeting was a mixture of nostalgia, news and next steps. Prof. Chris Hardacre, Chairman of the User Forum, welcomed everyone to the meeting and opened the session reserved for updates from the sources mostly used by the UK community. Dr. Tracy Turner began by showing a short video clip of the last seconds of multibunch user beam at the official SRS switch off ceremony on August 4. Highlighting several recent results to illustrate the point, she described how the SRS had been productive right up to the end with a late surge in operational reliability in both multibunch and single bunch modes. Over 400 papers have already been published this year, and many of these in high impact factor journals. She announced the imminent publication of the final Annual Report and a survey of the economic impact made by the SRS over its lifetime which had been prompted by the impending closure and which will be informative to government and other bodies in assessing the benefits that accrue from investment in large-scale facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an overview of the synchrotron radiation calculation code SPECTRA, which is used to evaluate the characteristics of synchrotron radiation. It discusses the history of the code's development, including challenges and limitations of earlier versions, and highlights new functions and improvements in the current version. The article also mentions special features of SPECTRA for beamline design. Additionally, the text discusses computational methods used to evaluate synchrotron radiation in a third-generation facility and introduces a simplified method for performing the coherent mode decomposition. The article concludes by mentioning that the SPECTRA code is available for use on the official website. [Extracted from the article]

The "Synchrotron Radiation Workshop" (SRW) code is a computer program developed by the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in 1997. It is used for simulating X-ray beamlines and coherence-exploiting experiments at synchrotron light sources. The code allows for the simulation of partially coherent wavefront propagation and the calculation of intensity distributions and coherence lengths. It has been used for electron beam diagnostics and offers brighter and more coherent X-ray beams for scientific experiments. The code is continuously developed and has interfaces with various software platforms. The article provides examples of simulations and mentions ongoing development and support from different organizations and research facilities. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the features and capabilities of the xrt python software library for modeling synchrotron sources and X-ray related material properties. It highlights recent advancements in the software, including the modeling of bent crystals, coherent modes, and wave propagation. The implementation of bent crystals allows for accurate ray tracing and reflectivity calculations, with improved performance using GPUs. The software also enables the study of coherent properties of partially coherent sources and the propagation of waves through optical systems. The document explores the concept of Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) of photons and its relationship to wave propagation, providing examples and comparisons of analytical and numerical wave propagation calculations. It concludes by mentioning different methods of obtaining a vortex beam and the importance of optics in preserving the vortex wavefront. The xrt software version 1.6.0 is referenced as the source of the recent developments discussed in the document. [Extracted from the article]

WP4: EOSC data analysis services for PaN national RIs The purpose of WP4 has been to provide photon and neutron users with the ability to find and run analysis workflows against the EOSC aligned data services. WP3: EOSC data catalogue services for PaN national RIs Metadata catalogues are a pivotal tool for EU photon and neutron national RIs and their users to implement open research data policies according to FAIR principles. Deliverable D4.4 described fully five challenging data analysis pipelines' implementation as remote data analysis services taking into account the needs of representative scientific communities while supporting the diversity of the institutions' existing computing infrastructures. Examples of those services are the data catalogues, the data portal, the training platform, various data analysis services and templates for data policies and DMSs. [Extracted from the article]

The Canadian Light Source's 11th Annual Users' Meeting (AUM), held June 9 and 10 in Saskatoon, marked several firsts for the regular gathering of the Canadian synchrotron community. It was the first time the meeting was held in conjunction with an international meeting hosted by the CLS, sharing joint workshops with the Fifth International MEDSI workshop and 15th Pan-American SRI conference. In addition, for the first time all of the papers presented at the AUM described results obtained with data from the CLS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synchrotron radiation (SR) has unique properties such as very high brilliance, a high coherence, a wide energy spectrum and, using specific optical elements (e.g., mirrors or lenses), can be focused to very small dimensions (< 1 µm). The NIS technique allows the determination of element-specific phonon density of states and provides Debye phonon average velocity (V SB D sb ), which together with density and bulk modulus enable calculations of compressional velocity (V SB P sb ) and shear velocity (V SB S sb ) of the materials under investigation [[30], [32]]. The high-brilliance X-ray absorption spectroscopy beamline ID24-DCM X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) present excellent probe techniques to study geomaterials, due to their element-selectivity, high sensitivity to concentration changes, and ability to characterize ordered and disordered structural environments. Prospecting for critical elements in natural samples: Ge in sphalerite ore deposits Germanium (Ge) is essential for high technologies such as optical fiber systems, infrared optics, polymerization catalyst, chemical therapy, electronics, and solar devices [[62]]. [Extracted from the article]

The article highlights the "Frontiers of Synchrotron-Based X-ray Microdiffraction" Advanced Light Source User's workshop which was held to acknowledge the contributions of Professor Jamshed R. Patel to the field of synchrotron-based X-ray microdiffraction. Jim Patel's first paper which emphasized on the effect of applied stress on the temperature of martensitic transformation was discussed. The said paper was published in 1953 in the "Acta Metallurgica" journal.

The annual users' meeting and workshops at Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) were held from June 9 to 10, 2015, attracting 175 attendees to Ithaca, NY. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From the first initiatives [[1]] to the most recent developments of synchrotron-based techniques for the study of cultural and natural heritage materials, many synchrotron facilities have developed their own scientific programs in this field [[2]]. Ender to hard X-rays 3-23 keVMacro: 250 × 200 µm Micro: 5 to 10 µmXRF, XRD, DANES, DAFS, EXAFS, XANES imaging or punctual measurementsU X-ray tomography Synchrotron X-ray micro- and nanotomography allow the study of the detailed 3D morphology of bulk samples, with a spatial resolution that can go down to the sub-micrometer range for "standard" parallel-beam projection microtomography setups, and down to less than 50 nm in nano-tomography methods using more recent and more complex schemes, such as hard X-ray transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM). D micro spectral imaging with XRF, XANES, and XRD 3D computed tomography with absorption and phase contrast (in the future)T. [Extracted from the article]

Historically, solving the structure of a protein required deep knowledge of crystallography and the ability to produce protein crystals of suitable quality to generate high-quality diffraction data. At Diamond, AlphaFold2 has been embedded into its computational pipelines for academic users to create models specifically based on their target protein sequence (Figure 1), which are used in downstream automated structure solution pipelines run following data collection (Figures 2 and 3). An additional benefit of users providing sequences in ISPyB is that this information can be used for other decision-making processes in data collection and automated pipelines beyond its usage for generating models via AlphaFold2. [Extracted from the article]

The international user base of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) gathered in Ithaca, NY, from June 10–11, 2014, for the annual CHESS Users' Meeting and affiliated workshops. This year drew a record crowd of 174 participants from diverse disciplines in academia and industry to celebrate the outstanding achievements of CHESS users over the past year and to discuss the ongoing upgrades of the facility and the new science that they will enable. As per tradition, the first day of the meeting was a plenary session, which began with a morning briefing from the CHESS directors on the state of the laboratory. This was followed by a series of invited talks in user science, with subject matter spanning the multidisciplinary spectrum of CHESS research, from virology to superconductivity to art conservation. These plenary sessions preceded a well-attended poster session and wine-and-cheese reception, where more than 50 user posters were up for discussion. The evening was capped off with a banquet dinner and after-dinner talk by Steven Strogatz, who shared anecdotes from his efforts at communicating mathematics to the general public via his column in theNew York Times. On the second day, the meeting broke up into smaller workshops. This year, MacCHESS sponsored a workshop on “Recent Applications in BioSAXS and New Developments in Combining SAXS and NMR Data,” which was chaired by Alvin Acerbo, while the Insitμ effort at CHESS sponsored a workshop on “Structural Materials Opportunities for Combining Polycrystal Modeling and High Energy X-rays,” which was chaired by Matt Miller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bending actuators are designed for easy adaptation for different mirror widths and thicknesses, and are very compact in the direction of the X-ray beam, so that the whole device is only 20 mm longer than the mirror substrate. The ALBA adaptive optics device The active optics system developed by ALBA (Figure 5) is essentially a mechanical mirror bender with point force actuators along the mirror length. The development of X-ray photon science has been characterized in the last few years by the development of free electron lasers and the so-called diffraction limited storage rings. The use of helicoidal springs enables the bender for an excellent dynamic range, and it is capable of applying forces up to 1 kN, with a below 1 mN, sufficient to ensure that the bender actuators can apply is 1,000 , enough to bend a flat mirror to curvatures below 100 m, with steps corresponding to a change of height below one nanometer. [Extracted from the article]

In June 2021, scientists celebrated the numerous achievements of a unique collaboration between researchers from the UK and Africa and the UK's national synchrotron, Diamond Light Source [[1]]. The highlight of the research was done by START PDRA Dr. Andani Mulelu, Angela Kirykowicz, and START Co-I Dr. Jeremy Woodward, who visualized a plant nitrilase and were able to explain and modify the substrate specificity of these enzymes. Creating an Africa Block Allocation Group (BAG) at Diamond with START-trained PDRAs assisting with the handling of samples. Here, START PDRAs Dr. Blake Balcomb and Dr. Anton Hamann design medicines to treat tuberculosis, malaria, and S. aureus infections using fragment-based drug discovery resources on the XChem beamline at Diamond. [Extracted from the article]

At NSLS-II, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility located at Brookhaven National Laboratory, there have been many significant developments in the areas of user operations and commissioning in the past year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several recent reports have identified the scientific requirements for a future soft X-ray light source [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], and a high-repetition-rate free-electron laser (FEL) facility responsive to them is being studied at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) [6]. The facility is based on a continuous-wave (CW) superconducting linear accelerator with beam supplied by a high-brightness, high-repetition-rate photocathode electron gun operating in CW mode, and on an array of FELs to which the accelerated beam is distributed, each operating at high repetition rate and with even pulse spacing. Dependent on the experimental requirements, the individual FELs may be configured for either self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE), seeded high-gain harmonic generation (HGHG), echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG), or oscillator mode of operation, and will produce high peak and average brightness X-rays with a flexible pulse format ranging from sub-femtoseconds to hundreds of femtoseconds. This new light source would serve a broad community of scientists in many areas of research, similar to existing utilization of storage ring based light sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Canadian Light Source played host to the first joint meeting of two of the synchrotron community's biggest conferences with the combined gathering of the Fifth International Workshop on Mechanical Engineering Design of Synchrotron Radiation Equipment and Instrumentation (MEDSI) and the 15th Pan-American Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation conference (SRI) from June 10 to 13 in Saskatoon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]