October 18, 2006

418th Brookhaven Lecture, 10/18

Timur Shaftan on 'Bright Photon Beams: Developing New Light Sources'

A world-leading brightness of intense x-ray light is needed for scientists to make the next generation of discoveries in a wide range of disciplines, from structural biology to nanoscience, from the structure and dynamics of disordered materials to properties of materials under extreme conditions — and more.

Timur Shaftan

To provide this bright light, BNL proposed and the DOE approved the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), a state-of-the-art medium energy machine designed to produce x-rays more than 10,000 times brighter than those produced at the current NSLS. These powerful beams and the advanced instrumentation at NSLS-II will be able to probe samples of materials in a wide range of sizes and conditions, giving information that could lead to advances, for example, in clean and affordable energy, molecular electronics, and the self-assembly of nanomaterials into useful devices.

Developing the machine and its instrumentation is not easy, however. Achieving and maintaining the needed level of intensity will involve tightly focusing the electron beam, providing the optimally matched insertion devices, and achieving and maintaining a high electron current. At BNL research and development are ongoing on these and other challenges.

Timur Shaftan, a scientist in the NSLS Department, gave the 418th Brookhaven Lecture on this work on October 18, 2006 during his talk “Bright Photon Beams: Developing New Light Sources.”

In his talk, Shaftan discussed various sub-systems of NSLS-II and the requirements and key elements of their design. He also explained how scientists at the NSLS developed a prototype of a light source of a different kind — a short-wavelength free electron laser — and reviewed the development of new concepts in the physics of bright electron beams in this facility.

Timur Shaftan, who earned his Ph.D. in physics at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, Russia, in 1997, joined BNL in February 2000. Since 2003, he has been involved in many areas of the NSLS-II project, including lattice design, insertion devices, and the design of the injection system. He currently leads the group working on Conceptual Design of the NSLS-II injection system. Involved in collaborations with a few accelerator facilities worldwide, he also serves as a reviewer in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research journal.