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.

Previous Issues are available.


ALSNews           Vol. 107           July 22, 1998

Table of Contents


    1. GLOBAL ORBIT FEEDBACK TEST PROPOSED
    2. ALS USERS' MEETING CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
    3. HOUSING AVAILABLE TO ALS USERS
    4. REVISED USER ADVISORIES NOW AVAILABLE
    5. ALSNEWS EDITOR MOVING ON
    6. THE EXPERIMENT FILES DEBUT IN MICROWORLDS
    7. LAST CALL FOR USERS' MEETING T-SHIRT DESIGNS, DUE JULY 24
    8. WHO'S IN TOWN: A SAMPLING OF ALS USERS
    9. OPERATIONS UPDATE

1. GLOBAL ORBIT FEEDBACK TEST PROPOSED
(Contact: GJPortmann@lbl.gov)

In order to further improve the long-term stability of the electron beam, the Accelerator Physics group proposes to implement a slow, global orbit feedback system during the week of August 11. The system should correct a slow orbit drift caused mainly by temperature variations in the storage ring.

Global orbit feedback is used at most other synchrotron light sources. Tests made at the ALS during accelerator physics shifts have shown that such a system could hold the beam steady to within a few microns. This enhanced stability will likely be needed to counter perturbations introduced by the elliptical polarization undulator when it comes on line in September. Implementing global feedback now will prepare the ALS for this eventuality while providing greater stability for users who need it.

Users with questions or concerns about implementing the new system the week of August 11 are urged to attend the July 31 weekly scheduling meeting, to be held at 3:30 p.m. in the Building 6 conference room. Greg Portmann will be available to answer questions and listen to user comments. Users are also welcome to contact Greg (ext. 5924) or David Robin (ext. 6028) directly. If no users express concerns, the system will be implemented as scheduled.

2. ALS USERS' MEETING CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
(Contact: w_meyer-ilse@lbl.gov)

The Advanced Light Source Users' Executive Committee invites users, including students, to submit abstracts for oral and poster presentations at the annual Users' Meeting, which will be held at Berkeley Lab on October 22-23, 1998. Some abstracts will be selected as highlights for oral presentation; other submissions will be presented as posters. A special student poster competition with a cash award will also be held at this year's meeting. The poster sessions will be held in conjunction with the vendor exhibits on Thursday, October 22, from 12 to 3 p.m., and Friday, October 23, from 12 to 2 p.m.

To propose a presentation, submit a one-page abstract by Thursday, August 20, 1998 to

Ruth Pepe
Advanced Light Source, MS 6-2100
Berkeley Lab
Berkeley, CA 94720
Fax: 510-486-4773
Email: alsum@lbl.gov

The annual Users' Meeting, sponsored by the Users' Executive Committee, will include new results from the ALS, reports from ALS management, and updates on funding prospects. If you do not receive a copy of the meeting's first announcement, which is being mailed this week, and wish to be added to the ALS mailing list, please send your name, affiliation, and complete postal address by email to alsuser@lbl.gov. Meeting information is also available on the web at the address noted above.

3. HOUSING AVAILABLE TO ALS USERS

The Laboratory Directorate has just finalized the lease of four 2-bedroom apartments for use by ALS users. The apartments will be rented on a weekly basis, Monday to Sunday, at a rate of $245.00 per person. Each bedroom has two beds, so the maximum number of people per apartment would be four. The apartments are fully equipped with microwave oven, refrigerator, and other amenities. Cleaning has been arranged with the apartment manager. The apartments, which will become available August 15, are located along the Berkeley Lab shuttle bus route, near the corner of Oxford and Hearst streets, and will be rented on a first-come, first-served basis. Reservations can be made with the User Services Office at (510) 486-7745. A web page with more information about the apartments will be available shortly, so stay tuned.

4. REVISED USER ADVISORIES NOW AVAILABLE
(Contact: alsuser@lbl.gov)

All currently active ALS User Advisories have recently been revised and published on the web at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/user-advis/user_advis_index.html. The advisories, reviewed annually, provide guidelines for how to meet Berkeley Lab and ALS requirements in areas of concern to users, such as special safety issues, seismic and electrical standards, etc. Copies are available in the User Services Area (near Beamline 9) and from the ALS User Services Office.

5. ALSNEWS EDITOR MOVING ON
(Contact: alsnews@lbl.gov)

Long-time ALSNews editor Deborah Dixon will be leaving the ALS July 24 to pursue a career in science education. She has been accepted to the University of California, Berkeley's Master's and Credential in Science Education program and plans to teach secondary-school science after completing the two-year program. Deborah leaves ALSNews after almost four years of producing this electronic newsletter. She began writing for and co-editing it at its inception in November 1994 and has served as editor in chief for the last two years. Under Deborah's hand, ALSNews readership has grown to a circulation of 1,976 readers in 25 countries. Her hard work, journalistic skill, and knowledge of the ALS will be sorely missed. With this issue, Annette Greiner replaces her as ALSNews editor. Inquiries or suggestions about ALSNews should now be directed to Annette by email at alsnews@lbl.gov or by phone at (510) 486-6711.

6. THE EXPERIMENT FILES DEBUT IN MICROWORLDS
(Contact: ejmoxon@lbl.gov)

A new series called "the eXperiment Files" begins today in Microworlds, the award-winning electronic educational magazine of research related to the ALS. The first installment, entitled "From Mosquito to Microscope: Research on Malaria at the ALS" follows scientists from Berkeley Lab's Center for X-Ray Optics and Life Sciences Division as they study the parasite that causes malaria. Oakland high school student Dana Nelson recorded, in words and pictures, the preparations involved in viewing the parasite inside a human red blood cell with the XM-1 microscope. Her story begins at http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/xfiles/malariaintro.html.

7. LAST CALL FOR USERS' MEETING T-SHIRT DESIGNS, DUE JULY 24
(Contact: ejmoxon@lbl.gov)

This is the last week to submit entries for the ALS Users' Meeting T-Shirt Design Contest. The winner will have his or her signed artwork featured on T-shirts for participants at this year's meeting. Designs should be no larger than 8.5 in. by 11 in. (22 cm by 28 cm) and should use no more than four colors. The words "Advanced Light Source" or "ALS" must appear somewhere in the design. Send designs by July 24 to Elizabeth Moxon, Advanced Light Source, Berkeley Lab, MS 4-230, Berkeley, CA 94720, or fax to 510-495-2111.

8. WHO'S IN TOWN: A SAMPLING OF ALS USERS

To highlight the richness of our user community and help introduce recent arrivals, we offer this listing of some of the experimenters who will be collecting data during the next two weeks at the ALS.

Beamline 1.4.3: Hoi-Ying Holman, Miqin Zhang, Dale Perry, and Jennie Hunter-Cevera (all of Berkeley Lab) will conduct in-situ studies of metal-organic reactions at the bacteria-mineral interface by Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy.

Beamline 3.3.2: Jill Hruby and Dale Boehme (Sandia National Laboratories) are using the ALS beam for LIGA fabrication of gears and assemblies for micromotors. They will also expose mechanical tensile-testing specimens. Keith Jackson (Berkeley Lab) will use the beamline to fabricate microchannel heat exchangers. LIGA-fabricated microchannels have very high surface-to-volume ratios and fin densities, which makes for much lower thermal resistance than that generated by a conventional water-cooled heat sink.

Beamline 8.0.1: Jo Stohr (IBM Almaden), in collaboration with Satish Myneni (Berkeley Lab), will conduct environmental research using soft x-ray spectroscopy on wet samples. Franz Himpsel (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Lou Terminello (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) will conduct materials science experiments with the ellipsoidal mirror analyzer.

Beamline 9.3.1: Jean-Pierre Briand (University of Paris-Jussieu) and his team will be studying K-shell vacancy production in argon atoms on solid surfaces.

Beamline 10.3.2: Katrina Peariso, Craig McClure, and Jim Penner-Hahn (all of the University of Michigan) will be studying the zinc distribution and speciation in zebra-fish embryos to gain detailed information about zinc localization as well as insight into how the zinc environment changes during the early stages of embryonic development. Also, Peter Weber and Lynn Ingram (both from the University of California, Berkeley) will be examining materials, such as salmon ear bone, which form characteristic rings of calcium carbonate and incorporate other species such as heavy metals. The specific distribution of the metals may relate to human intervention in the environment or tidal and climate changes.

9. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(Contact: rmmiller@lbl.gov)

Beam reliability for the last two weeks was 98.1% overall and 97.8% for user shifts. All outages were of short duration.

Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/accelinfo.html). Weekly operations scheduling meetings are held on Fridays at 3:30 p.m. in the Building 6 conference room. 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.