ALSNews is a biweekly electronic newsletter to keep users and other interested parties informed about developments at the Advanced Light Source, a national user facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California. To be placed on the mailing list, send your name and complete internet address to ALSNews@lbl.gov. We welcome suggestions for topics and content.

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ALSNews           Vol. 100           April 15, 1998

Table of Contents


    1. TWO BEAMLINES SEE FIRST LIGHT
    2. ALIGNMENT SERVICES FOR ALS USERS
    3. CHECK THE WEB FOR LATEST VERSIONS OF ALS FORMS
    4. CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATOR PROPOSALS - DUE JUNE 1
    5. OPERATIONS UPDATE

1. TWO BEAMLINES SEE FIRST LIGHT
(contacts: aamacdowell@lbl.gov for 7.3.3, jmhruby@sandia.gov for 3.3.2)

In the past few weeks, two new beamlines at the ALS have passed their "first light" milestone, getting light through the beamline to an experiment endstation.

Beamline 7.3.3 provides white and monochromatic bend-magnet light in the 2-12 keV range for materials science experiments. It received first light on March 27 to its white-light branchline, currently home to a sub-picosecond x-ray diffraction spectroscopy experiment led by Roger Falcone (U. California, Berkeley). Another branchline, operated by the ALS Experimental Systems Group (ESG) and located within the same hutch, provides both white and monochromatic light for micro-diffraction experiments. Beam time is shared between the two groups. The installation of the custom micro-diffraction endstation is expected to be complete in September. Until then, the ESG will be performing many short experiments to determine the range of work feasible on a bend-magnet beamline. So far, these experiments have included protein crystallography, x-ray scattering studies of supercooled water jets, and powder diffractometry to explore propagation of cracks in turbine blades.

Beamline 3.3.2, which received its first light on April 3, is a white-light (3-12 keV) beamline dedicated to deep-etch x-ray lithography. This is a proximity lithography technique: the patterned mask is placed within a millimeter of the photoresist, so that the final product is a faithful same-size reproduction of the mask. This step is part of a process known as LIGA, which produces small structures with high aspect ratios (~100:1 ratio of depth to transverse feature size).

Funding for Beamline 7.3.3: U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Intel Corporation.
Funding for Beamline 3.3.2: U.S. Department of Energy.

2. ALIGNMENT SERVICES FOR ALS USERS
(contact: rkthatcher@lbl.gov)

The ALS Survey and Alignment crew can often save users from spending valuable time on trial-and-error methods of aligning their experiments with the photon beams. The same survey specialists who keep the ALS accelerators precisely aligned are usually available to help set up users' endstation equipment. In most cases, the survey crew already has the coordinates of the beamline axes. Even if an endstation has not been "fiducialized" with survey targets, inlet and outlet flanges can usually be used to align the equipment with the photon beam. Most endstation alignments are straightforward and can be done with no charge to the user's account. (Complicated, time-consuming alignments may require some effort charges.)

ALS survey help is normally available during day shifts, Monday through Friday, by arrangement through Ray Thatcher (x7412) or directly with lead surveyor Richard DeMarco (voice mail, x6320). Availability may be limited on shutdown Mondays, because of accelerator commitments.

3. CHECK THE WEB FOR LATEST VERSIONS OF ALS FORMS
(contact: rcjones@lbl.gov)

Most ALS forms, such as the Experiment Form, are updated from time to time. The ALS web pages will always offer the latest version for downloading. If you are filling out a form for the ALS, please check the Web first to ensure you have the latest version. You may wish to bookmark the pages where the forms are available, rather than keeping a version on your computer, so that you will always access the latest versions of forms.

Below is a partial listing of forms and documents available on the ALS Web pages, with their latest revision date and the URL where you can download them.

Experiment Form (10/97)
     http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/expform.html
Experiment Modification Form (8/94)
     http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/expmodification.html
Independent Investigator Proposal Form (3/98)
     http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/independinvest.html
User Advisories (various revision dates)
     http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/user-advis/user_advis_index.html
Beamline Review Checklists (3/98)
     http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/procedures/procedures.html

4. CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATOR PROPOSALS - DUE JUNE 1

The ALS is now accepting proposals from scientists who wish to conduct research at the facility as independent investigators between October 1998 and March 1999 inclusive. The deadline for proposals is June 1, 1998. There will be no automatic rollover of proposals from the previous proposal cycle (June-September 1998). Scientists wishing to renew a previous proposal should notify the ALS User Administrator, Ruth Pepe (contact information below).

The proposal form for independent investigators is available in Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Web. Information on the proposal process is available at the same location. Data sheets on beamlines at the ALS (also on the Web in PDF) provide information that may be useful to prospective ALS users.

To request a proposal form by mail, contact:
Ruth Pepe, ALS User Administrator
Tel: (510) 486-5268
Fax: (510) 486-4773
Email: alsuser@lbl.gov

For information on beamlines available to independent investigators, contact:
Gary Krebs, ALS User Services Group Leader
Tel: (510) 486-7727
Fax: (510) 486-4102
Email: g_krebs@lbl.gov

5. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(contact: rmmiller@lbl.gov)

Beam reliability for the last two weeks was 95.1% overall and 94.4% for user shifts. All outages were of short duration.

The ALS is currently in a planned shutdown period for maintenance and installations. (See ALSNews Vol. 99 for details of shutdown activities.) Shutdown scheduling meetings will be held on Thursdays at 1:00 in the Building 6 conference room. Weekly operations scheduling meetings, held on Fridays at 3:30 p.m. in the Building 6 conference room, will resume on May 29. User operations are scheduled to resume June 3.

Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web. The Accelerator Status Hotline at (510) 486-6766 (ext. 6766 from Lab phones) features a recorded message giving up-to-date information on the operational status of the accelerator.