October 17, 2007

428th Brookhaven Lecture

Kenneth Evans-Lutterodt

Kenneth Evans-Lutterodt

Brookhaven's planned National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) is designed to be a world-leading light source facility, promising advances in nanoscience, energy, biology, and materials research. In designing and developing this new facility, breakthrough research is a must to ensure that appropriate tools are available for the new science that will be studied.

At BNL, a team of researchers has overcome a major x-ray focusing obstacle to allow the study of molecules, atoms, and advanced materials at the nanoscale – on the order of billionths of a meter. Their innovative method uses a type of refractive lens called a kinoform lens – similar to the kind found in lighthouses – in order to focus the x-rays down to the extremely small spots needed for a sharp image at small dimensions.

To learn about this research, join NSLS physicist Kenneth Evans-Lutterodt at 4 p.m. October 24, 2007, in Berkner Hall as he gives the 428th Brookhaven Lecture, titled "Lighthouses, Lightsources and Kinoform Hard X-ray Optics"

The goal for Evans-Lutterodt and his colleagues is to enable the probing of materials and molecules with just one-nanometer resolution – a capability needed to study the intricate mechanisms of chemical and biological systems. However, to do that, they need to exceed a limit on the ability to focus "hard," or high-energy, x-rays known as the “critical angle.” Without doing so, the lens resolution would be limited to 24 nanometers or more. Evans-Lutterodt will explain how this limit was exceeded at the NSLS and how the breakthrough could benefit future science at NSLS-II.

Evans-Lutterodt received his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After working at Bell Laboratories, he joined BNL in 2003.

Refreshments will be offered before and after this free talk, which is open to the public. Visitors to the Lab who are 16 and older must carry a photo ID.