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The Medipix3 ASIC is one of the most advanced chip that is presently available to build photon counting area detectors. The capabilities of the chip include adjacent pixels charge summing circuitry to sort out the distortion due to charge sharing, simultaneous counting and read‐out that enables frames to be acquired without dead time, the colour mode of operation that enables up to eight energy bands to be acquired. In order to fully exploit the capabilities of the Medipix3 chip in synchrotron research, a high performance electronic board capable of driving large arrays of chips is necessary. We propose a parallel read‐out board of Medipix3 chip arrays with a scalable architecture that allows driving the Medipix3 chip in all of its modes of operation. The board functions include the control of the chip arrays, data formatting and data compression, the management of the communications with the data storage devices, and operation in various trigger modes. In addition to this the board will have some “intelligence” embedded. This will add some very important features to the final detector such as pattern recognition, capability of variable frame duration as a function of the photon flux, feedback to other equipment and real time calculations of data relevant to experiments such as the autocorrelation function.

A Hydrostatic Levelling System (HLS) has been installed at Diamond Light Source. 8 sensors have been positioned along a 60 metre portion of the floor of the Storage Ring and the Experimental Hall, stretching out along a typical beamline route from Insertion Device to sample. 7 of the sensors are installed on the thick, reinforced concrete floor of the Experimental Hall which is supported on piles and the last sensor is mounted on the much thinner concrete floor of the peripheral walkway which has no piles. The foundations and floor were designed to achieve settlements measuring 1 micron per 10 metres per hour and 10 microns per 10 metres per day. A larger range was specified of 250 microns per 10 metres per year on the Experimental Hall floor and 100 microns per 10 metres per year in the Storage Ring to account for longer term settlement effects and seasonal variation and the HLS has been installed to try and measure these very small movements. Results after one year of operation are presented.

Speckle noises in x‐ray image can be reduced by spatial filter method combined with beam‐focusing optics. This technique is widely used in laser optics but so far has not been applied to the x‐ray field. We have applied this speckle‐reduction method to the x‐ray region using Fresnel zone plate optics and fine cross‐slit as a spatial filter. Demonstration at SPring‐8 undulator beamline and some applications to Gabor‐type holography are shown.

The investigation of accurate structure at charge density level will not only understand the function mechanism of physical property but also lead to design new functional materials. We have successfully installed large cylindrical camera at the BL02B1/SPring‐8. In conceptual design, the image plate (IP) was selected as the detector, because such IP will not only detect wide range in one shot but also yield reliable data. In commissioning, the performance of this camera demonstrated to be suitable for the direct observation of d‐electron system.

We developed a fluorescence‐type monochromatic X‐ray beam‐position monitor (X‐BPM) with high‐spatial resolution for end‐station experiments at the initial project beamlines of the NSLS‐II. We designed a ring array of multi‐segmented Si PIN‐junction photodiodes to use as a position sensor. Further, we integrated a low‐noise charge‐preamplification HERMES4 ASIC chip into an electronic readout system for photon‐counting application. A series of precision measurements to characterize electronically the Si‐photodiode sensor and the ASIC chip demonstrated that the inherent noise from the detector system is sufficiently low to meet our stringent requirements. Using a Gaussian beam, we parametrically modeled the optimum working distance to ensure the detector’s best performance. Based upon the results from the parametric modeling, prototypes of the next versions of the X‐BPM are being developed. In this paper, we describe the methodology for developing the new compact monochromatic X‐ray BPM, including its instrumentation, detector modeling, and future plan.

We have proposed a method for observing parametric channeling radiation (PCR) and of applying it to the measurement of electron beam energy. The PCR process occurs if the energy of the channeling radiation coincides with the energy of the parametric X‐ray radiation (PXR). The PCR process can be regarded as the diffraction of “virtual channeling radiation”. We developed a scheme for beam energy measurement and designed an experimental setup. We also estimated the beam parameters, and calculated the angular distributions of PXR and PCR. These considerations indicate that the observation of PCR is promising.

Hard x‐ray range synchrotron radiation still remains only partially coherent even for ultra‐low emittance third‐generation sources, such as NSLS‐II. On the other hand, many of the scientific goals targeted by new advanced hard x‐ray microscopy beamlines—e.g. development of scanning microscopy with nanometer‐scale spatial resolution or coherent diffraction imaging microscopy—require high degree of transverse coherence and high radiation flux at a sample. Detailed quantitative prediction of partially‐coherent x‐ray beam properties at propagation from an undulator, along a beamline with a number of optical elements, can only be obtained from accurate physical‐optics based numerical simulations. We present an example of such simulations performed for the NSLS‐II Hard x‐ray Nanoprobe beamline using “Synchrotron Radiation Workshop” (SRW) computer code. In addition to tracking of intensity distributions at different locations of the beamline, we include numerical experiments with a two‐slit interference scheme into our analysis, in order to characterize transverse coherence of the resulting wavefront. The wavefront propagation method which has been used offers high flexibility in the beamline optimization, allowing to choose optical element parameters for different types of microscopy experiments.

As modern undulators can generate light with arbitrary polarization states, experiments exploiting this feature in the range of soft x‐rays have become increasingly widespread. For the success of these experiments characterising the polarization at the sample position is vital. Therefore a versatile, multi‐purpose, UHV compatible, multilayer polarimeter has been designed and developed for measuring the Stokes vector of a soft x‐ray beam. This high‐precision, ultra high vacuum compatible instrument is supported by a Hexapod to simplify its alignment. Furthermore, the instrument has its own independent control system and has been designed for portability so that it can be moved with relative ease between different synchrotron facilities. The polarization analysis requires the rotation of a phase retarder and a polarization analyser, both about a common axis of the photon beam. The polarimeter employs reflection / transmission multilayers as phase retarders / analysers. Several sets of multilayers are instal...

We have been attempting to establish an absolute scale of spectral radiance in ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet regions by using synchrotron radiation as a primary standard light source and also attempting to transfer the absolute scale to an under‐test light source by comparing the under‐test source with synchrotron radiation. The calibration apparatus does not function as ideal comparator because some properties of incident radiation, which are spectral distribution and polarization state, are different between synchrotron radiation and the under‐test light source, and the signal of the apparatus accordingly depends on not only spectral radiant power but also depends on the properties of the incident radiation. We evaluated how the detector signal ratio was affected by the difference both experimentally and theoretically, and also evaluated the uncertainty of the scale transfer caused by the difference.

Due to its outstanding thermal properties, diamond is an attractive alternative to silicon as a monochromator material for high intensity X‐ray beams. To date, however, the practical applications have been limited by the small size and relatively poor crystallographic quality of the crystals available. The ESRF Diamond Project Group has studied the perfection of diamonds in collaboration with industry and universities. The group has also designed and tested different stress‐free mounting techniques to integrate small diamonds into larger X‐ray optical elements. We now propose to develop a water‐cooled Bragg‐Bragg double crystal monochromator using diamond (111) crystals. It will be installed on the ESRF undulator beamline, ID06, for testing under high heat load. This monochromator will be best suited for the low energy range, typically from ∼3.4 keV to 15 keV, due to the small size of the diamonds available and the size of the beam footprint. This paper presents stress‐free mounting techniques studied using X‐ray diffraction imaging, and their thermal‐mechanical analysis by finite element modelling, as well as the status of the ID06 monochromator project.

This report presents the optical design and optical simulations for the first infrared beamline at the Siam Photon Laboratory. The beamline collects the edge radiation and bending magnet radiation, producing from the BM4 bending magnet of the 1.2 GeV storage ring of the Siam Photon Source. The optical design is optimized for the far‐ to mid‐infrared spectral range (4000−100 cm−1) for microspectroscopic applications. The optical performance has been examined by computer simulations.

X‐ray experiments are very frequently detector limited at today’s storage ring synchrotron radiation (SR) sources, and will be even more so at future Energy Recovery Linac and X‐ray Free Electron Laser sources. Image plate and phosphor‐coupled CCD detectors that predominate at present‐day sources were outgrowths of technologies initially developed for the medical and astronomical communities, respectively, with resultant limitations for SR. These limitations are enumerated. The growth of commercial silicon foundries and design tools enabling the production of large, customized integrated circuits is beginning to have a profound impact on SR detectors and is ushering in the age of “designer detectors”. Novel area Pixel Array Detectors (PADs) are starting to appear in which each pixel has dedicated, complex circuitry capable of high speed and, in some cases, significant data processing power for specific applications. PADs now at, or near the horizon will be described. Integrated circuit methods continue to develop at a rapid pace. Implications for future x‐ray detectors will be discussed.

A gas monitor detector was calibrated to a cryogenic radiometer for measuring the radiant power of EUV‐FEL (extreme ultraviolet free electron laser) at the wavelengths of 51 nm and 61 nm. The output signals of the gas monitor detector showed good linearity against the radiant power measured by the radiometer in the range from 6 μW to 160 μW. The calibration coefficients of the gas monitor detector are determined with the relative standard uncertainty of around 5 %.

The first XUV beamline (200–2000 eV) at NSLS‐II will have two branches, one optimized for photon hungry experiments requiring high coherent flux and one optimized for studies of polarization sensitive materials and interfaces based on fast polarization switching. We describe here the branch designed for fast polarization switching with frequencies up to 1 kHz, high photon flux, and good energy resolution. The beamline will be served by two canted undulators and is based on the focusing variable line spacing grating monochromator. The two beams will be focused at the same spot of approximately 80×10 μm (hor.×ver.). The expected circular polarized flux at the sample from each device up to 1.4 keV will be higher than 1012 photons/s at a resolving power better than 104. An additional KB focusing system will deliver the two beams to a spot in the μm range.

We present the design and instrumentation of a novel holography endstation for the P10 coherence beamline at PETRA III at DESY. The experimental imaging scheme is based on a highly coherent and divergent (cone) beam illumination, achieved by fixed curvature focusing mirrors with additional spatial and coherence filtering by x‐ray waveguides. The optical elements along the beam path and the instrument under construction are described. Preliminary results obtained in a similar setting under comparable parameters are given as a benchmark, and first simulations of one of the two mirrors are presented to study the effect of imperfections on the field distribution in the focal plane.

A new method of measuring specular X‐ray reflectivity curves with a time resolution of milliseconds to seconds is developed. A horizontally convergent X‐ray beam having a one‐to‐one correlation between its direction and energy is realized by a curved crystal or a laterally graded multilayer on an elliptic substrate. The X‐ray beam is then incident on the surface of the specimen placed at the focus in such a way that the glancing angle in the vertical direction is the same for all X‐ray components, which are reflected in the vertical direction by the surface and diverge in the horizontal plane. The perpendicular momentum transfer continuously changes as a function of the horizontal ray direction since the wavelength change similarly. The normalized linear intensity distribution across the beam direction measured downstream of the specimen represents the X‐ray reflectivity curve. Examples of time‐resolved measurements of X‐ray reflectivity curves are shown.

An existing FPGA‐based device for beam position monitoring [1] was reconfigured into a four‐channel digital pulse processing system for semiconductor detectors. Preamplifier outputs were sampled with a frequency of 100 MHz and mathematically processed for pulse height analysis. In addition, each detector event was time‐stamped. Both realtime histogram calculation as well as list‐mode recording is possible.

A new insertion device beamline is now operational on straight section 8 at the SOLEIL synchrotron radiation source in France. The beamline and the experimental station were developed to optimize the study of the dynamics of electronic and magnetic properties of materials. Here we present the main technical characteristics of the installation and the general principles behind them. The source is composed of two APPLE II type insertion devices. The monochromator with plane gratings and spherical mirrors is working in the energy range 40-1500 eV. It is equipped with VLS, VGD gratings to allow the user optimization of flux or higher harmonics rejection. The observed resonance structures measured in gas phase enable us to determine the available energy resolution: a resolving power higher than 10000 is obtained at the Ar 2p, N 1s and Ne K-edges when using all the optical elements at full aperture. The total flux as a function of the measured photon energy and the characterization of the focal spot size complete the beamline characterization.

The Max Planck Institute for Metal Physics in Stuttgart and the Helmholtz Center Berlin operate a soft X‐ray microscopy beamline at the storage ring BESSY II. A collimated PGM serves as monochromator for a scanning X‐ray microscope and a full field X‐ray microscope at the helical undulator UE46. The selection between both instruments is accomplished via two switchable focusing mirrors. The scanning microscope (SM) is based on the ALS STXM microscope and fabricated by the ACCEL company. The full field microscope (FFM) is currently in operation at the U41‐SGM beamline and will be relocated to its final location this year.

Brilliant pulsed x‐ray synchrotron radiation (SR) is useful for pump‐probe experiment such as time‐resolved x‐ray diffraction, x‐ray absorption fine structure, and x‐ray spectroscopy. For laser pump‐SR x‐ray probe experiments, short pulsed lasers are generally synchronized to the SR master oscillator controlling the voltage for acceleration of electron bunches in an accelerator, and the interval between the laser and the SR pulses is changed around the time scale of target phenomenon. Ideal delay control produces any time delay as keeping the time‐precision and pointing‐stability of optical pulses at a sample position. We constructed the time delay control module using a continuous phase shifter of radio frequency signal and a frequency divider, which can produce the delayed trigger pulses to the laser without degradation of the time precision and the pointing stability. A picoseconds time‐resolved x‐ray diffraction experiment was demonstrated at SPring‐8 storage ring for fast lattice response by femtosecond pulsed laser irradiation, and suggested the possibility of accurate sound velocity measurement. A delay control unit operating with subpicosecond precision has also been designed for femtosecond pump‐probe experiments using a free electron laser at SPring‐8 campus.

Manganese (Mn) is not abundant in human brain tissue, but it is recognized as a neurotoxin. The symptoms of manganese intoxication are similar to Parkinson’s disease (PD), but the link between environmental, occupational or dietary Mn exposure and PD in humans is not well established. X‐ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) and in particular X‐ray fluorescence can provide precise information on the distribution, concentration and chemical form of metals. However the scattered radiation and fluorescence from the adjacent abundant element, iron (Fe), may interfere with and limit the ability to detect ultra‐dilute Mn. A bent Laue analyzer based Mn fluorescence detection system has been designed and fabricated to improve elemental specificity in XAS imaging. This bent Laue analyzer of logarithmic spiral shape placed upstream of an energy discriminating detector should improve the energy resolution from hundreds of eV to several eV. The bent Laue detection system was validated by imaging Mn fluorescence from Mn foils, gelatin calibration samples and adult Drosophila at the Hard X‐ray MicroAnalysis (HXMA) beamline at the Canadian Light Source (CLS). Optimization of the design parameters, fabrication procedures and preliminary experimental results are presented along with future plans.

To form a magnified hard X‐ray image with a 50 nm resolution, we have studied total reflection mirror optics with two pairs of elliptical and hyperbolic mirrors, which is called “Advanced Kirkpatrick‐Baez system”. A designed optical system has 200x and 300x magnifications in vertical and horizontal directions. Also diffraction limit size in the optical system is 40 nm×45 nm. We fabricated a pair of elliptical and hyperbolic mirrors for horizontal imaging with a figure accuracy of 2 nm using elastic emission machining (EEM), microstitching interferometry (MSI) and relative‐angle‐determinable stitching interferometry (RADSI). One‐dimensional tests for forming a demagnified image of a slit were carried out at an X‐ray energy of 11.5 keV at BL29XUL (EH2) of SPring‐8. As a result, a shape beam with a FWHM of 78 nm was observed. This demonstrates that we realized one‐dimensional Wolter optics that has a spatial resolution of 78 nm.

Capabilities at the PNC‐XOR of the Advanced Photon Source to monitor Resonant Inelastic X‐ray Scattering (RIXS) in the intermediate X‐ray energy range using a wavelength dispersive spectrometer (WDX) and associated X‐ray Excited Optical Luminescence (XEOL) using an optical spectrometer will be described. Ce L3 ‐edge of Ce and Tb doped inorganic phosphors have been investigated using these techniques and corresponding X‐ray Absorption Near‐Edge Structures (XANES) using a micro X‐ray beam with X‐ray fluorescence and optical luminescence yield. Results from these studies and their prospects for future applications in XEOL imaging will be discussed.

Reflections in synchrotron radiation beam lines tend to change the state of polarization of the radiation. This effect is more pronounced for steep angle of incidence, i.e. at low photon energy (say below 100 eV) beam lines. The APPLE II undulator UE112 at BESSY has all four magnetic rows shiftable and thus generates any state of polarization. To provide any intended polarization state at the sample we perform polarization measurements based on simple and fast linear polarization analysis that together with calculations of the undulator radiation predicts undulator settings that cancel beam line polarization effects.

A Test beamline B16 has been built on the 3 GeV Diamond synchrotron radiation source. The beamline covers a wide photon energy range from 2 to 25 keV. The beamline is highly flexible and versatile in terms of the available beam size (a micron to 100 mm) and the range of energy resolution and photon flux; by virtue of its several operational modes, and the different inter‐changeable instruments available in the experiments hutch. Diverse experimental configurations can be flexibly configured using a five‐circle diffractometer, a versatile optics test bench, and a suite of detectors. Several experimental techniques including reflectivity, diffraction and imaging are routinely available. Details of the beamline and its measured performance are presented.

A continuous spectrum of synchrotron radiation in the hard x‐ray region, 5–20 keV, is necessary for the special demand of users, but the high radiation power in that continuous spectrum adversely affects the design of optical components in the beam line. A compromise between photon flux and radiation power of insertion devices should hence be considered. An algorithm and code for spectrum optimization was hence developed using program Mathematica. A wiggler‐like undulator with a continuous spectrum was investigated with this code. An optimization algorithm for continuous spectra in the energy range 5–20 keV is presented, and features of the wiggler‐like undulator with a continuous spectrum are discussed herein.

X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) provides a direct means for measuring lead chemical forms in complex samples. In this study, XAS was used to identify the presence of plumbojarosite (PbFe{sub 6}(SO{sub 4}){sub 4}(OH){sub 12}) by lead L{sub 3}-edge XANES spectra in mine waste from a small gold mining operation in Fiji. The presence of plumbojarosite in tailings was confirmed by XRD but XANES gave better resolution. The potential for human uptake of Pb from tailings was measured using a physiologically based extract test (PBET), an in-vitro bioaccessibility (BAc) method. The BAc of Pb was 55%. Particle size distribution of tailings indicated that 40% of PM{sub 10} particulates exist which could be a potential risk for respiratory effects via the inhalation route. Food items collected in the proximity of the mine site had lead concentrations which exceed food standard guidelines. Lead within the mining lease exceeded sediment guidelines. The results from this study are used to investigate exposure pathways via ingestion and inhalation for potential risk exposure pathways of Pb in that locality. The highest Pb concentration in soil and tailings was 25,839 mg/kg, exceeding the Australian National Environment Protection Measure (NEPM) soil health investigation levels.

X‐ray diffraction (XRD) beamline is under commissioning on Indus‐2 synchrotron radiation facility. The experimental setup of XRD beamline consists of a six‐circle diffractometer and various detector systems such as scintillation detector, ionization chamber and image plate. The diffractometer can be controlled via EIA232 serial interface or Ethernet. Standard data acquisition software with a graphical user interface has been developed using LabVIEW. A firm safety and error handling scheme is implemented for failsafe operation of the experimental station. This paper describes in detail the data acquisition and control software for the experimental station.

The high x‐ray flux available at synchrotron radiation sources can cause nonlinearities in photon‐counting detectors unless deadtime corrections are employed. We compute the uncertainties associated with several common deadtime‐correction formulas. At lower countrates, statistical noise dominates the error in the measured countrates; at higher countrates, the dominating factors are saturation of the response and uncertainty in the value of the deadtime parameter. In between, a range of countrates exists in which the signal‐to‐noise ratio can be optimized for photon‐counting experiments.

The design and commissioning of a new soft X‐ray beamline, BL‐16A, at the Photon Factory is presented. The beamline consists of a pre‐focusing mirror, an entrance slit, a variable‐included‐angle varied‐line‐spacing plane grating monochromator, and a post‐focusing system as usual, and provides circularly and linearly polarized soft X rays in the energy range 200–1500 eV with an APPLE‐II type undulator. The commissioning procedure for the beamline optics is described in detail, especially the check of the focal position for the zero‐th order and diffracted X rays.

This paper presents an overview of the instrumentation and experiments developed for the beamlines at Synchrotron SOLEIL in France. Currently fourteen beamlines are opened to users out of the twenty six scheduled. About half of the beamlines cover the soft x‐rays region using spectroscopy and imagery techniques. The second half covers the hard x‐rays field studying diffraction of matter. Some sample environments carried out for beamlines, for biology, chemistry and surface sciences are described. For the soft x‐rays beamlines, carbon contamination of optics is a crucial issue. Different experiments are currently under study in order to reduce or even avoid this effect. Other studies relate to the improvement of metrological methods for beamline optics, to the reduction of vibrational effects for the microbeams and development of computer control for diffractometers. The various types of instruments and experiments will be presented both with an overview of the status of the beamlines in operation and unde...

A new hard X‐ray beamline has been designed at Saga Light Source. The beamline, named BL7, uses a newly developed 4‐Tesla superconducting wiggler as a light source in order to cover a wide energy range to 30 keV. This beamline has a simple optics: a double‐crystal monochromator and a Rh‐coated bent‐cylindrical mirror’ and can supply a focused beam with a photon flux about 1×1010 photons/s and a sub‐millimeter size. Several experiments will be performed in the experimental station: e.g. protein crystallography; X‐ray micro computed tomography; X‐ray absorption fine structure measurement.

A highly automated system for powder diffraction with synchrotron radiation was installed on the large Debye‐Scherrer camera at the BL19B2 Engineering Science Research I beamline of SPring‐8. Combined with a sample transfer and an automated centering system, we have succeeded in increasing the ratio of exposure time in the user beam time to 85%. The proposed system can be applied to a wide range of industrial uses.

Nanoscopium is the single scanning hard X‐ray nano‐probe beamline planned at SOLEIL. This ∼155 m long beamline will fully exploit the high brilliance and coherence characteristics of the X‐ray beam both for diffraction limited focusing and for contrast formation. It will offer the most advanced imaging techniques in multimodal mode and will be a research tool for a wide user community working in the fields of earth‐, environmental‐, and life‐sciences. The different μ‐μnano‐probe techniques offered by the beamline will permit elemental mapping at trace (ppm) levels (scanning XRF), speciation mapping (XANES), phase gradient mapping (scanning differential phase contrast), and density‐contrast based imaging of internal structures (coherent diffraction imaging) in the 30 nm to 1 μm spatial resolution range, also in “in situ conditions”.Nanoscopium will cover the 5–20 keV energy range. The stability of the nanobeam will be ensured by horizontally reflecting beamline optics (a sagitally and a tangentially pre‐fo...

An upgrade of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) to enable top‐off operation has been completed during the last four years. The final work centered around radiation safety aspects, culminating in a systematic proof that top‐off operation is equally safe as decaying beam operation. Commissioning and transition to full user operations happened in late 2008 and early 2009. Top‐off operation at the ALS provides a very large increase in time‐averaged brightness (by about a factor of 10) as well as improvements in beam stability. The following sections provide an overview of the radiation safety rationale, commissioning results, as well as experience in user operations.

The revolver undulator beamline BL15XU at SPring‐8, which is the contract beamline of National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), was established for materials science using soft‐and‐hard X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high‐resolution powder X‐ray diffraction (XRD). We have performed beamline reconstruction for further developments of the experiments in the research field of materials science. The flat double‐crystal monochromator (DCM) with liquid nitrogen cooling, X‐ray total reflection double‐mirror system with (+,−) geometry, and high‐energy‐resolution channel‐cut monochromator have been installed into the beamline. The refined beamline provides monochromatic X‐rays from 2 to 36 keV. The improvement of the photon flux density at the XRD and XPS experimental stations was confirmed. The photon flux was estimated to be several 1012 photons/sec with ΔE/E of ∼10−4.

NSRRC has been operating a 1.5 GeV synchrotron light source, the Taiwan Light Source (TLS), for over 15 years and has established a large user community. For the future development of synchrotron radiation research in Taiwan, a feasibility study report to construct a 3.0 GeV low‐emittance storage ring, the Taiwan Photon Source (TPS), was issued in July 2005. The government approval of the TPS project was obtained in December 2007 and the machine will be built at current site of NSRRC. The project has progressed steadily since and reached several major milestones now: the architect firm has finished the site plan and civil design, the accelerator design has been fixed, and purchase of long‐lead items begins its course. The TPS storage ring has a circumference of 518.4 meters with a concentric booster of 496.8 meters. The storage ring adopted a 24‐cell double‐bend structure with a 1.6 nm‐rad natural emittance. There are six 12‐m and eighteen 7‐m ID straights. For user research, five new beamlines have been selected for the Phase I operations: the micro protein crystallography, the materials sub‐micron diffraction, the inelastic soft x‐ray scattering, the coherent x‐ray scattering, and the nano probe beamlines. The civil construction is getting ready to start. The commissioning of the TPS storage ring is targeted for 2013.

How should a beamline be designed, which satisfies the needs and requirements of scientists and is easy to build and operate? Today, most control and instrumentation systems for beamlines are based on scientific requirements. Scientific details of the beamline, e.g. vacuum and beam physics details; are usually extensively described. However, control system specifications are often reduced to few requirements, e.g. which beam‐related device to use. Lots of these systems work perfectly from the physicist’s point of view, but are hard to bring into service and operate and difficult to extend with additional equipment. To overcome this, the engineering company ENZ has developed components using industrial standard interfaces to guarantee high flexibility for equipment extension. Using special interface boards and galvanic isolation offers increased stability of motion control axes. This saves resources during commissioning and service. A control system was developed and installed at a Soft‐X‐ray beamline at ASP Melbourne. It is operated under EPICs on distributed embedded IOC’s based on PC‐hardware. Motion and vacuum systems, measurement devices, e.g. a Low‐Current Monitor (LoCuM) for beam position monitoring, and parts of the equipment protection system were developed and most of them tested in cooperation with DELTA at the Technical University of Dortmund.

We proposed a new type of undulator based on bulk high‐Tc superconductors (HTSC) which consists of a single solenoid and a stacked array of bulk HTSC. The main advantage of this configuration is that a mechanical structure is not required to produce and control the undulator field. In order to perform a proof of principle experiment, we have developed a prototype of bulk HTSC staggered array undulator using 11 pairs of DyBaCuO bulk superconductors and a normal conducting solenoid. Experimental results obtained by using the prototype undulator and numerical results obtained by a loop current model based on the Bean mode for a type‐II superconductor were compared.

To use x‐ray optics with nanometer resolution limit, scanning x‐ray nanoprobes with corresponding mechanical positioning capability need to be designed. In particular, positioning stages with both sub‐nanometer resolution and a positioning/scanning range of several millimeters are required. Based on our design of precision weak‐link stages with interferometric encoders for the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) hard x‐ray nanoprobe at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) Sector 26, we have developed a new two‐dimensional (2‐D) weak‐link stage system for nanopositioning of a specimen holder. This system provides sub‐nanometer resolution, coupled with sub‐nanometer metrology at a travel range of several millimeters. The 2‐D weak‐link stage system is designed with high structure stiffness using laminar overconstrained weak‐link mechanisms [4–6]. In this paper we present the study of a linear precision weak‐link stage system with sub‐centimeter travel range and sub‐nanometer positioning resolution. Design of a rotary weak‐link stage system with 10‐nrad resolution and 10‐degree‐level travel range is also discussed in this paper.

We have developed a compact experimental set‐up for X‐ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements in He at atmospheric pressure (AP) in the soft X‐ray region and used it for Mg and Cl K‐edge XAFS measurements of MgCl2 and MgCl2⋅6H2O. The spectra of MgCl2⋅6H2O measured in He at AP were significantly different from those measured in vacuum. This suggests the importance of performing soft X‐ray XAFS experiments under AP to obtain reliable spectra from hydrated compounds.

To remotely control and automatically collect data in high‐throughput X‐ray data collection experiments, the Structural Biology Research Center at the Photon Factory (PF) developed and installed sample exchange robots PAM (PF Automated Mounting system) at PF macromolecular crystallography beamlines; BL‐5A, BL‐17A, AR‐NW12A and AR‐NE3A. We developed and installed software that manages the flow of the automated X‐ray experiments; sample exchanges, loop‐centering and X‐ray diffraction data collection. The fully automated data collection function has been available since February 2009. To identify sample cassettes, PAM employs a two‐dimensional bar code reader. New beamlines, BL‐1A at the Photon Factory and BL32XU at SPring‐8, are currently under construction as part of Targeted Proteins Research Program (TPRP) by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. However, different robots, PAM and SPACE (SPring‐8 Precise Automatic Cryo‐sample Exchanger), will be installed at BL‐1A a...

Multilayer Laue Lenses (MLLs) were developed by us using dynamic diffraction effects to efficiently focus hard x-rays to very small spots. Using a partial MLL we were able to focus 19.5-keV hard x-rays to a line focus of 16 nm with an efficiency of 31%. A full MLL is a complete linear MLL structure. It can be fabricated by bonding two partial MLL wafers, or by growing the full structure using magnetron sputtering without bonding. A 40-{mu}m full MLL, with a total of 5166 layers of WSi{sub 2} and Si, has been successfully grown by sputter deposition. The layer thicknesses gradually vary from 4 nm to {approx}400 nm and then back to 4 nm. Two coating runs were used to grow the full structure, one for each half. It took over 56 h for each run. A 100-{mu}m nearly-full MLL was constructed by bonding. Each 50-{mu}m half-structure has 1788 WSi{sub 2} and Si layers with 12-nm to {approx}32-nm thicknesses and {approx}32-{mu}m total thickness, followed by a thick WSi{sub 2} layer of {approx}17 {mu}m, and an AuSn layer of {approx}1 {mu}m. Both full MLL structures survived dicing and polishing. The primary results demonstrate the feasibility and potential of a full MLLmore » with a doubled numerical aperture and large beam acceptance for hard x-rays.« less

The production of Hard X‐rays has become a tricky problem on medium energy storage rings. It requires Insertion Devices (IDs) with high magnetic field and a large number of periods. To cover the 20–50 keV photon energy range at SOLEIL (2.75 GeV), an in‐vacuum wiggler (WSV50) has been preferred to a superconducting ID. The wiggler is composed of 38 periods of 50 mm producing a 2.1 T field at a minimum magnetic gap of 5.5 mm. To minimize the magnetic forces acting between magnet arrays (8.5 tons), a compensation system composed of non magnetic springs has been mounted apart from the magnet system to reduce the mechanical deformations. The wiggler has been assembled step by step by means of a genetic algorithm which minimizes the magnetic errors measured with a flipping coil. This paper presents the mechanical and magnetic design of the wiggler as well as the construction and the magnetic measurements.

A planar undulator beamline, BL‐13A, covering 30–1,000 eV has been constructed in the Photon Factory. The main scientific targets are investigations of organic thin films and biomolecules adsorbed on well‐defined surfaces using angle‐resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X‐ray absorption spectroscopy. A variable‐included‐angle Monk‐Gillieson mounting monochromator with varied‐line‐spacing plane gratings is used to achieve a high photon flux of 1010–1012 photons/s with a high resolution (E/ΔE) of 7,000–30,000. A typical spot size on the sample position is estimated to be 130 μm (horizontal)×40 μm (vertical). After commissioning, BL‐13A will be open for users from January 2010.

The straight‐section upgrade project of the Photon Factory created four new short straight sections capable of housing in‐vacuum minipole undulators. The first to third minipole undulators SGU♯17, SGU♯03 and SGU♯01 were installed at the 2.5‐GeV Photon Factory storage ring in 2005, 2006 and 2009, respectively. The beamline front ends for SGU0♯3 and SGU0♯1 are described in this paper.

A synchrotron radiation facility that is used not only for basic research, but also for engineering and industrial research and development has been proposed to be constructed in the Central area of Japan. The key equipment of this facility is a compact electron storage ring that is able to supply hard X‐rays. The circumference of the storage ring is 72 m with the energy of 1.2 GeV, the beam current of 300 mA, and the natural emittance of about 53 nm‐rad. The configuration of the storage ring is based on four triple bend cells, and four of the twelve bending magnets are 5 T superconducting ones. The bending angle and critical energy are 12 degree and 4.8 keV, respectively. For the top‐up operation, the electron beam will be injected from a booster synchrotron with the full energy. Currently, six beamlines are planned for the first phase starting from 2012.

Focusing performance of reflective x‐ray optics is determined by surface figure accuracy. Any surface imperfection present on such optics introduces a phase error in the outgoing wave fields. Therefore converging beam at the focal spot will differ from the desired performance. Effect of these errors on focusing performance can be calculated by wave optical approach considering a coherent wave field illumination of optical elements. We have developed a wave optics simulator using Fresnel‐Kirchhoff diffraction integral to calculate the mirror pupil function. Both analytically calculated and measured surface topography data can be taken as an aberration source to outgoing wave fields. Simulations are performed to study the effect of surface height fluctuations on focusing performances over wide frequency range in high, mid and low frequency band. The results using real shape profile measured with long trace profilometer (LTP) suggest that the shape error of λ/4 PV (peak to valley) is tolerable to achieve dif...

A new protein micro‐crystallography beamline BL32XU at SPring‐8 is under construction and scheduled to start operation in 2010. The beamline is designed to provide the stabilized and brilliant micro‐beam to collect high‐quality data from micro‐crystals. The beamline consists of a hybrid in‐vacuum undulator, a liquid‐nitrogen cooled double crystal monochromator, and K‐B focusing mirrors with large magnification factor. Development of data acquisition system and end station consists of high‐precision diffractometer, high‐efficiency area detector, sample auto‐changer etc. are also in progress.

A shorter pulse of synchrotron radiation is desired to measure a fast dynamic process exploration with a better resolution by material structure physics users. Among many complex schemes proposed for this purpose, we tested a simple scheme which makes use of a head‐tail oscillation of a circulating electron beam with a small beam emittance. We have developed a new kicker magnet system which generated a short pulsed horizontal field of about 4.19 mT in 1.4 μs pulse width with 1 Hz repetition. With this new developed kicker magnet system, we observed a bunch profile which leaned impressively between head and tail position by a visible light streak camera. Then we succeeded in achieving the shorter X‐ray pulse width than the original one after a vertical slit being sliced by ∼6 times. The observed X‐ray pulse width was 7.38±2.35 ps in FWHM.