1. STREAK CAMERA RECORDS ULTRAFAST LATTICE DYNAMICS
by Art Robinson
[Contact: rwf@physics.berkeley.edu (Roger Falcone)]

X rays have long been used as structural probes of complex molecules and solids on the atomic scale, but only recently have these techniques been extended into the time domain. At the Advanced Light Source (ALS), an international collaboration led by researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, developed and then applied a high-speed x-ray streak camera to watch--in real time--the motion of atoms in the semiconductor indium antimonide on picosecond time scales. Following a "kick" from a short laser pulse, they directly observed large-amplitude coherent atomic vibrations, in which the atoms collectively oscillated about their equilibrium positions. At higher laser powers, they were able to follow the structural phase transition from an ordered to a disordered state in real time.

Read the full story at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/science/sci_archive/phonons.html.

Publication about this research: A.M. Lindenberg, I. Kang, S.L. Johnson, T. Misalla, P.A. Heimann, Z. Chang, J. Larsson, P.H. Bucksbaum, H.C. Kapteyn, H.A. Padmore, R.W. Lee, J.S. Wark, and R.W. Falcone, "Time-Resolved X-Ray Diffraction from Coherent Phonons during a Laser-Induced Phase Transition," Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 111 (2000).

2. DIRECTOR REPORTS ON STATE OF THE ALS

ALS Division Director Daniel Chemla laid out his vision of the future for the ALS in his "State of the ALS Division" report today at a general meeting of ALS staff. With a positive endorsement from recent high-level reviews, a solid managerial framework in place, numerous facility improvements under way, and user numbers on the rise, the ALS is in a strong position. Our challenge now, according to Daniel, is to maintain the momentum.

Daniel shared his thinking on the general areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology, where the next generation of breakthroughs in computer technology will likely occur and "atomically designed materials" with unanticipated applications in physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine will be developed. "What is going to happen in the next twenty years will dwarf what has happened in the last two decades," Daniel said. He envisages a "molecular foundry" consisting of a state-of-the-art facility for the synthesis, processing, and fabrication of novel molecules and nanoscale materials and their in-situ characterization. Such a facility would be invaluable in developing new data processing, storage, and transmission technologies that require an understanding of magnetic and electrical properties at the nanoscale level. Daniel also cited various research results that illustrate the wide-ranging applicability of nanoscale science: from carbon nanotubes that could be used as frictionless bearings to nanocrystals used to label parts of a cell.

A highlight of Daniel's presentation was a picture of a proposed new building that would house both the much-needed expansion of ALS user space and a new nanoscience program. The proposed facility has already received a positive reaction from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Basic Energy Sciences and is a top priority for Berkeley Lab: it has received endorsements from all Berkeley Lab division directors. Daniel emphasized that very strong user support will be crucial to the success of the program.

Daniel also reported on the status of current ALS projects and initiatives. The Molecular Environmental Science beamline is partially funded and the project is under way. A proposal for PEEM3, which should provide a factor of ten improvement in resolution over PEEM2, has been submitted to the DOE and received very positive comments. A femtosecond x-ray proposal was just recently submitted to DOE. The superconducting bend magnet ("superbend") project is on track for completion in summer 2001. The superbends will enable 12 new higher-energy beamlines to be built without changing the characteristics of the storage ring for soft x rays. Most of the superbend beamlines have already been spoken for. Four beamlines are currently under construction for protein crystallography, and the first is expected to be ready even before the superbends are installed.

3. 1999 COMPENDIUM OF ABSTRACTS NOW ON LINE
(Contact: LSTamura@lbl.gov)

The contents of the 1999 Compendium of User Abstracts are now available on line at the ALS Compendium Web site (http://alspubs.lbl.gov/compendium). The site is a comprehensive, one-stop reference tool for finding information about the research done at the ALS since 1997. Visitors to the site can perform full-text searches of the entire abstract database, "power search" the abstracts according to several user-selected parameters (such as year, beamline, author, and title), or simply browse the abstracts by subject, beamline, or author. For 1999, some information previously published in the Compendium (i.e., technical reports, publication list, and user services information) will be found in the complementary publication, the 1999 ALS Activity Report. A CD version of the 1999 Compendium of User Abstracts will be distributed in conjunction with the Activity Report later this summer.

4. UEC CORNER: NOTES FROM THE USERS' EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
by Nora Berrah
(Contact: berrah@wmich.edu)

The UEC and ALS staff are busy preparing for the 2000 Users' Meeting, to be held on October 16-18, 2000. Workshops in several areas have been proposed and their organization is under way. So far, we have workshops planned in infrared science; femtosecond x-ray science; detectors; correlated materials; atomic, molecular, and optical physics/chemical dynamics; hard x-ray spectroscopy and holography; microdiffraction in thin films; and actinide research. If you would like to run a workshop, please contact me (berrah@wmich.edu) or the UEC member nearest you (contact information available on line at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/uec/UECcontacts.html).

We will need to replace four members of our committee because Steve Kevan (1997-2000), Charles Fadley (1998-2000), James Underwood (1998-2000), and David Hansen (1998-2000) will finish their terms at the end of the year. One of the newly elected members must be a student or postdoc. Please send us your nominations of users to stand for election.

The space committee for the new section of the ALS mezzanine has been formed and is composed of Harald Ade (North Carolina State Univ.), Carolyn Larabell (Berkeley Lab), Tom Baer (Univ. of North Carolina), Bob Schoenlein (Berkeley Lab), Wayne Stolte (Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas/ALS), Jim Krupnick (ALS), and Gary Krebs (ALS). Please send your requests for space to Gary Krebs (GFKrebs@lbl.gov).

5. WHO'S IN TOWN

Following are some of the experimenters who will be collecting data during the next two weeks at the ALS.

Beamline 1.4.3
Phil Huie, Daniel Palanker (Stanford Univ.)
Hoi-Ying Holman (Berkeley Lab)
Jessica Preciado, Ralph Greif, Boris Rubinsky (Univ. of California, Berkeley)
Ted Raab (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder)
Sherry Zhang, Phil Ross (Berkeley Lab)
Allen Johnson (Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas)

Beamline 3.3.2
Jill Hruby, Michelle Bankert (Sandia National Laboratories)
Keith Jackson, Cheryl Hauck (Berkeley Lab)

Beamline 8.0.1
Yasuji Muramatsu (Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute)
John Carlisle (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.)
Miquel Salmeron (Berkeley Lab)

Beamline 10.3.1
Claudine Chen (California Institute of Technology)

Beamline 10.0.1
Z.X. Shen, Scot Kellar, and colleagues (Stanford Univ.)
John Bozek and students (Berkeley Lab)
Duane Jaecks, Orhan Yenen, and colleagues (Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Beamline 12.0.1
Sang Hun Lee, Chang Cho (Univ. of California, Berkeley)
Patrick Naulleau, Kenneth Goldberg, Paul Denham, Phil Batson (Berkeley Lab)

6. CHANGE IN ALSNEWS SCHEDULE

The bad news: because of the Independence Day holiday and the editor's vacation schedule, there will be no ALSNews on July 5. The good news: the normal biweekly publication schedule will resume with the next issue, which will appear on July 12.

7. OPERATIONS UPDATE
(Contact: EJLampo@lbl.gov)

Beginning with this issue, we will be reporting beam availability statistics for reporting periods determined by user runs, rather than by the ALSNews publication schedule. In addition, we will continue the practice, begun in the last issue, of reporting the percentage of beamtime delivered without interruption.

For the user runs of May 31 - June 5 and June 6 - 11, the beam availability was 98.6%. Of the delivered beam, 91% was delivered as scheduled without interruption. The interruptions mainly were attributable to water-flow trips and tuning problems.

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 Gary Krebs (GFKrebs@lbl.gov, x7727) 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.