1. DEADLINE FOR PHYSICAL SCIENCES INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATOR PROPOSALS: DECEMBER 1
(Contact: GFKrebs@lbl.gov)

December 1, 1999, is the deadline for independent investigator (II) proposals in the physical sciences for the next running period, which will last from June to November 2000. The Independent Investigator Proposal and Request for Beamtime form can be obtained from the User Services Office or on the Web at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/independinvest.html. Investigators who would like to keep a previous proposal active must fill in a one-page Experiment Report and Request for Beamtime and submit it to the User Services Office by the December 1 deadline. This form is available from the User Services Office or on line at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/independinvest.html. (The information above does not apply to protein crystallography proposals, which have a separate process and schedule.) All II proposals have the option to remain active for two years (i.e., four six-month cycles) with the submission of an Experiment Report and Request for Beamtime every six months.

The numeric rating for each II proposal will be communicated to the investigator along with comments from the Proposal Study Panel (PSP). The cutoff rating for each beamline in the previous proposal cycle is published on the Web at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/pspscores.html.

Information on the proposal process and a summary of the proposal deadlines for both physical sciences and protein crystallography are available at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/quickguide/independinvest.html. Data sheets describing the capabilities of the beamlines at the ALS are also on the Web at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/als_users_bl/datasheets.html.

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

2. X-RAY MICRODIFFRACTOMETER BEGINS COMMISSIONING
(Contact: AAMacDowell@lbl.gov)

The x-ray microdiffractometer endstation has arrived and is being installed and commissioned on Beamline 7.3.3. This machine comprises a six-circle diffractometer made by Huber and a 90-mm-diameter, 4000-by-4000 x-ray CCD detector from Bruker. The ALS will provide the x-ray microfocusing capability. The endstation has been funded by Intel, which is interested in measuring the strain within buried metal interconnect lines on semiconductor chips. The technique of x-ray microdiffraction is well suited to such measurements, since x rays can penetrate the insulating layer above the interconnects, and microdiffraction allows one to measure the small changes in crystal lattice spacing that correspond to strain. One other immediate area of application will be in materials chemistry, where there is a pressing need for structural determination of crystals too small to measure using commercial diffractometers and with unit cells too complex to measure by powder diffraction techniques. Initial commissioning is expected to be complete in December, and over the next six months the suitability of the system for many other areas of materials science will be explored. After this initial period, the system is expected to become available for use by independent investigators.

3. ALS USER FEATURED ON CANADA'S DISCOVERY CHANNEL

ALS user Adam Hitchcock was featured on @Discovery.ca, the Canadian affiliate of the Discovery Channel, on September 27. Hitchcock, a chemist from McMaster University, was interviewed for a piece highlighting the Canadian Light Source, the national light source for Canada now being built at the University of Saskatchewan. He explained the workings and the uses of synchrotrons and described the polymer research he is currently performing in collaboration with Gary Mitchell and other scientists from Dow Chemical at the ALS's spectromicroscopy facility. The show can still be seen on the Web by anyone who has the Real Player software installed on their computer. Point your browser to http://exn.ca/news/video/19990927-atdisco.ram to download the video. The segment about synchrotrons begins at 41:55. (You can zoom forward in the player.) The Real Player software can be downloaded from the Real.com site at http://www.real.com/player/.

4. USERS: PLEASE HELP US MINIMIZE STORAGE IN BUILDING 7
(Contact: GJGiangrasso@lbl.gov)

We are overflowing with storage items in Building 7. To compound the problem, as space on the ALS floor for staging experiments becomes smaller and smaller, we will need to begin preparing Building 7 to be used for this staging work. This means removing as many items as possible from Building 7, especially those items that have been stored for longer than six months. We will accept no new items for storage in Building 7 for periods longer than six months. To provide future storage, we have obtained an excellent secure storage area in Building 903, where we have "storage for ALS only" space. This area is locked and its security is maintained by the ALS. All items stored in Building 903 are photographed and listed in our database for easy retrieval. One day's notice to Gary Giangrasso (510-486-4494, GJGiangrasso@lbl.gov) is all that is necessary to bring an item back to the ALS. If you have any items that have been stored in Building 7 for longer than six months, please help us to identify them by contacting Gary.

5. SESAME PROJECT TO BRING SYNCHROTRON LIGHT TO MIDDLE EAST
(Contact: ZHussain@lbl.gov or Winick@slac.stanford.edu)

A new project, being developed under the auspices of UNESCO, will bring the Middle East its first international research center, with a synchrotron light source as its hub. The project is known as SESAME, Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East. It is envisioned as a way to enhance both the technology and the economy of the region, fostering peace through science. SESAME will be open to all qualified researchers from the Middle East and elsewhere. Its location is yet to be determined but should be chosen by early 2000.

The anticipated gift from Germany of the BESSY I storage ring and injector (due to cease operation this month) will give SESAME instrumentation that can be upgraded to a "super second generation" source. This is to be accomplished by increasing the stored beam energy from 0.8 to 1 GeV and adding multipole, superconducting, 7.5-Tesla wigglers. The upgrade will extend the spectral range to 20-25 keV. Additional undulators would provide relatively high brightness at photon energies up to 1 keV. Primary research areas would include structural molecular biology, molecular environmental science, surface and interface science, microelectromechanical devices, x-ray imaging, archaeological microanalysis, materials characterization, and medical applications. The center will be jointly supported by member countries and assisted by other countries interested in promoting the peaceful development of science and technology in the Middle East.

More information about the SESAME project is available from the SESAME Web page at http://www.weizmann.ac.il/~sesame/. Anyone interested in helping to further this effort is encouraged to contact Zahid Hussain (ZHussain@lbl.gov) or Herman Winick (Winick@slac.stanford.edu).

6. UEC CORNER: NOTES FROM THE USERS' EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
by Stephen Kevan
(Contact: kevan@oregon.uoregon.edu)

The slate of candidates to replace some members of the UEC is now complete, and you will be receiving a mail ballot in a few weeks. In completing your ballot, I ask that you remember a couple of factors.

First, the role of the UEC has been enhanced quite a bit in the last two years, and consequently its workload has increased as well. We have tried to provide a slate of candidates who have a healthy but constructive skepticism about the facility, who will provide a balanced and fair perspective of work done at the ALS, and most importantly, who will be willing to devote their time to making it the best synchrotron radiation facility in the world. We also have tried to nominate users who will make good candidates to serve as Vice Chair and Chair of the committee since these positions are key and also involve a serious time commitment.

Second, we should collectively try to make sure that representation on the UEC is balanced by field. For example, our only representative of the crystallography community is slated to rotate off the committee this year, and we feel that this large and active community certainly needs continuing representation. We will also not be representing microscopy and the non-crystallography biological sciences very well.

Finally, at the risk of being accused of age discrimination, we think the UEC offers an excellent opportunity to involve the "young maniacs" (Neville Smith's words, not mine) in the facility. These folks are our future, and the more vested in the facility they become, the stronger the facility will be. I note that the current chair is serving his second term after a 10-year hiatus. I do not think this is a good situation, since I am certainly not feeling at all young anymore and I'm not sure I ever was a maniac.

On a separate issue, I want to remind you that the ALS and the UEC are working to develop the next edition of the ALS Highlights section of the annual report. In this we are trying to include probably 20-30 research highlights from the last year in a brochure that is fairly widely distributed. As yet we have had little input from the user community, though this is one place where a brief message could go a long way. Please let us know by November 17 if you would like to nominate an experiment or series of experiments as a highlight.

7. RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Anders, S., T. Stammler, W. Fong, C.-Y. Chen, D.B. Bogy, C.S. Bhatia, and J. Stohr, "Study of tribochemical processes on hard disks using photoemission electron microscopy," J. Tribol. 121(4), 961-967 (October 1999).

Gunnelin, K.M., P.N. Glans, J. Rubensson, C. Sathe, J.E. Nordgren, Li Yang, F. Gel'mukhanov, and H. Agren, "Bond-length-dependent core hole localization observed in simple hydrocarbons," Phys. Rev. Lett. 83(7), 1315-1318 (August 1999).

Hamad, K.S., R. Roth, J. Rockenberger, T. van Buuren, and A.P. Alivisatos, "Structural disorder in colloidal InAs and CdSe nanocrystals observed by x-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy," Phys. Rev. Lett. 83(17), 3474-3477 (October 1999).

Hansen, D.L., O. Hemmers, H. Wang, D.W. Lindle, P. Focke, I.A. Sellin, C. Heske, H.S. Chakraborty, P.C. Deshmukh, and S.T. Manson, "Validity of the independent-particle approximation in x-ray photoemission: The exception, not the rule," Phys. Rev. A 60(4), 2641-2644 (October 1999).

Luecke, H., B. Schobert, H.-T. Richter, J.-P. Cartailler, and J.K. Lanyi, "Structural changes in bacteriorhodopsin during ion transport at 2 angstrom resolution," Science 286, 255-260 (October 8, 1999).

Schaefer, J., E. Rotenberg, G. Meigs, S. Kevan, P. Blaha, and S. Huefner, "Direct spectroscopic observation of the energy gap formation in the spin density wave phase transition at the Cr(110) surface," Phys. Rev. Lett. 83(10), 2069 (September 1999).

Zhou, X.J., P. Bogdanov, S.A. Kellar, T. Noda, H. Eisaki, S. Uchida, Z. Hussain, and Z.-X. Shen, "One-dimensional electronic structure and suppression of d-wave node state in (La1.28Nd0.6Sr0.12)CuO4," Science 286(5438), 268-272 (October 1999).

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.

Beamline1.4.3: Felicia Hendrickson and Robert Glaeser (Berkeley Lab) continue their investigations of the photocycle of bacteriorhodopsin microcrystals. Upal Ghosh (Carnegie Mellon Univ.) will be studying sediments spectromicroscopically. Ted Raab (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) will investigate root-soil systems from the rhizosphere. Wayne McKinney and Mike Martin (Berkeley Lab) will be testing a new grazing-incidence infrared microscope objective. Sherry Zhang and Phil Ross (both of Berkeley Lab) will study buildup products on battery anodes. Ron Simms and Karl Neiman (Utah State Univ.) and Hoi-Ying Holman (Berkeley Lab) will continue investigations of pyrene degradation in soil systems.

Beamline 7.0.1: Adam Hitchcock and Ivo Koprinarov (McMaster Univ.) will use the Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscope (STXM) to study protein/polymer interfaces. Ward Plummer (Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville) will be studying the electronic properties of molybdenum-rhenium alloys.

Beamline 7.3.1.1: Adam Hitchcock and Ivo Koprinarov (McMaster University) will conduct studies of protein/polymer interfaces using the PEEM2 photoemission electron microscope.

Beamline 8.0.1: Jan Luening, Jo Stohr (IBM, Almaden) and coworkers Stefan Eisebitt, Marcus Loergen, and Ricardo Scherer (Juelich, Germany) will perform speckle spectroscopy of magnetic thin films.

Beamline 10.0.1: Ron Phaneuf, Aaron Covington (Univ. of Nevada, Reno) and coworkers will investigate the photoionization of singly charged ions using the Photon-Ion Project endstation. Scot Kellar, Z.X. Shen (Stanford Univ.) and coworkers will study the electronic structure of highly correlated electron systems using the HERS endstation.

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

Beam reliability for the last two weeks (October 25 to November 7) was 95% for user shifts. There were no significant outages.

Long-term and weekly operations schedules are available on the Web (http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/accelinfo.html). Requests for special operations use of the "scrubbing" shift should be sent to Bob Miller (RMMiller@lbl.gov, x4738) by 1:00 p.m. Friday. 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.