Background

The Advanced Light Source is the first 3rd generation light source in the United States. A 3rd generation light source is one which is designed to be used with "insertion devices," which are periodic magnet arrays that produce a beam of highly collimated X-rays. A substantial fraction of the total output of the undulators on the ALS are coherent photons. Because of the narrow angular divergence and small source size (high brightness) of the X-ray beam, the ALS is an ideal source for spatially resolved spectroscopy experiments.

The philosophy of the SpectroMicroscopy Project was to exploit the properties of the first undulator beamline at ALS, beamline 7.0 (BL7). This beamline has a 5 cm period and a 5 meter long undulator which drives an ultra-high vacuum spherical grating monochromator with optics which set new standards for surface finish and accuracy. The output of the beamline (by which we mean the undulator and monochromator) is refocused by adaptive grazing incidence mirrors into a very small spot of below 40 microns in diameter. It is steerable between two branch lines which have been called MicroFOCUS I and MicroFOCUS II. Both micro-focus locations are used for experiments. At one of the locations, the beam becomes the object point for two scanning X-ray microscopes which are located downstream of the micro-focus location. Zone-plate lenses demagnify the beam further to spot sizes of from 1000 Angstroms down to, eventually, below 500 Angstrom. These two zone-plate focal points are called the NanoFOCUS I and II stations.

The SpectroMicroscopy Facility is a project involving a participating research team with members from LBL (D. Attword, T. Warwick), LLNL (J. Tobin), SSRL (P. Pianetta), University of Washington (M. Olmstead), North Carolina State University (H. Ade), University of Oregon (S. Kevan), Pennsylvania State University (R. Willis, Jr.), University of Michigan (J. Allen), University of Wisconsin (B. Tonner) and UC Berkeley (J. Bokor).

The Advanced Light Source is the brightest source of soft X-ray beams in the world today. The first user beamline that was placed in operation is the SpectroMicroscopy Facility. This project is based on an undulator light source coupled to a high resolution spherical grating monochromator. Both the undulator and monochromator are state-of-the-art machines and represent an investment of nearly $4.0M in construction costs. This undulator beamline provides the soft X-ray photons for a suite of experimental analytical equipment that makes up the SpectroMicroscopy Facility. These instruments make particular use of the high brightness of the undulator beamline. The SpectroMicroscopy Facility analytical instruments themselves are state-of-the-art and represent another investment of nearly $1.0M in construction costs. The instruments of the SpectroMicroscopy Facility which are relevant to the current proposal are the ultra ESCA Project, the atmospheric pressure scanning transmission X-ray microscope (STXM) and the ultra-high vacuum scanning photoemission microscope (SPEM).

These instruments are designed to provide spatially resolved chemical information at length scales ranging from below 1 micron to, in the case of photoelectron diffraction structural imaging, the atomic scale. The capabilities of these instruments are beyond what can be achieved anywhere else in the world, with the possible exception of the one or two other sites with similar soft-xray undulator beamlines. Because of the unique capabilities of these instruments, the SpectroMicroscopy Project was originally conceived as a rather large collaboration. Nevertheless, the use of these machines currently involves a very substantial investment in training, staffing, time and travel costs. The goal of this "collaboratory" project is to broaden the access to the SpectroMicroscopy Facility. In addition, the project goals are clearly general enough to serve as an important model to establish the technology and methodology for accomplishing this goal at other similar facilities. It is expected that this approach will become a model for implementations at other new synchrotron laboratories such as the Advanced Photon Source.

The SpectroMicroscopy Facility is primarily an analytical tool so that the "product" of use of the facility is information in the form of images, spectra and sophisticated chemical and structural analysis. It is therefore very well matched to the technology of remote electronic communication using high speed computer networks. Through this proposed project, the SpectroMicroscopy Facility can be opened up to "users" from a much wider range of organizations. A particular target audience is industrial users, such as those in the semiconductor industry, who can greatly benefit from this proposed electronic economy of scale.

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Sonia Sachs (SRSachs@lbl.gov) and Deb Agarwal ( DAAgarwal@lbl.gov) are responsible for this WWW document. To report general problems, please e-mail webmaster@george.lbl.gov. This document was last updated on March 18, 1996, and is located under http://www-itg.lbl.gov/BL7Collab.html. William E. Johnston (johnston@george.lbl.gov) has reviewed this WWW document.

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