Chi-Chang's Corner

New Webpage Dedicated to Industrial Users

August 11, 2009

Chi-Chang Kao
NSLS Department Chair
kao@bnl.gov

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As part of our ongoing efforts to grow our industrial user base, we rolled out a new webpage devoted to current and potential industrial users at the NSLS. In addition to directions for receiving and using beam time, the site includes basic descriptions of a wide variety of experimental techniques. We hope to continue to improve this webpage and use it as a tool to attract the attention of industrial researchers who are unfamiliar with the NSLS or the synchrotron world in general.

We've received good feedback from tests conducted on our new, web-based x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) training program. The goals of the program are to train and educate novice users to help them: design an effective and appropriate proposal; make efficient use of their beam time; and develop the necessary skills to analyze and interpret their data. The program is available now to all users and an email including the link will be sent out shortly. Based on this model, we'll now start developing a training course on small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) in conjunction with Stony Brook University. If you have any comments or questions about the project, please contact Kathleen Nasta (Information, Outreach, and User Administrator).

NSLS-II passed two important milestones recently. In late June, NSLS-II staff conducted a preliminary test to determine how closely the machine's magnets will stay aligned when moved from the assembly point to the NSLS-II tunnel. They stayed put, keeping their alignment within microns. Just a few weeks later, the concrete-pouring process began for the facility's ring building.

On the safety front, please remember that eye protection is required for entry to any of the sample-preparation laboratories and whenever you are working with liquid reagents. We have noticed that people are forgetting this requirement, so I ask that you pay more attention to this rule. Questions are best directed to NSLS Safety Engineer Keith Klaus.

Thanks to this year's healthy budget, we are just beginning to outfit an environmental sciences research laboratory with new equipment, including a titration system, environmental reactor systems, and general lab essentials. We are still soliciting user input about additional laboratory equipment needed on the experimental floor. If there's anything that would help you use your beam time more efficiently, please contact division heads Lisa Miller and Ron Pindak.

As you're all aware, the research and technology developed at the NSLS is valuable on multiple levels. A prime example of this can be seen in a company recently founded by several current and former Brookhaven employees with the goal to transfer a high-resolution, low-dose imaging technique from the synchrotron to the doctor's office. The technique, diffraction enhanced imaging (DEI), was first developed at the NSLS in the mid-1990s, and is able to visualize bone and soft tissue in a way that is not possible using standard x-rays. To make this technique easier and cheaper for clinical use, the company, NextRay, has developed a tabletop version of the synchrotron device, with hopes to start FDA trials in the next couple of years. You can read more about this venture here.

Finally, a team of Brookhaven and Argonne National Laboratory researchers has demonstrated a reliable path for sculpting kinoform lenses out of diamond. Typically, kinoforms are made from silicon, which is easy to shape, but not ideal for handling the intensified photon beams at upcoming synchrotrons like NSLS-II. Although it is extremely hard to etch, diamond is an ideal material for this job because of its very high thermal conductivity and transparency to x-rays. The researchers found a way - using a pulsed, cyclic method with oxygen-argon plasma - to etch a clean kinoform pattern deep into the material. You can read more about their work in this edition of eNews.