1. ELECTRON-PHONON COUPLING AT THE TUNGSTEN SURFACE
by Art Robinson
(Contact: erotenberg@lbl.gov)

For metals at very low temperatures, exotic states (e.g., superconductivity, charge-density waves, and spin-density waves) driven by "many-body" effects replace the ground (lowest energy) state predicted by conventional "one-electron" theory. Since many-body effects are often more prominent in low-dimensional metallic systems, such as two-dimensional surfaces and interfaces, researchers from the ALS and the University of Oregon have engaged in a continuing series of experiments to explore metal surfaces covered with one atomic layer (monolayer) or less of adsorbate atoms. In their most recent investigation of tungsten covered with one monolayer of hydrogen, the ALS/Oregon team has demonstrated a many-body effect in which there is a strong coupling between the tungsten surface electrons and vibrating hydrogen atoms that splits a surface energy band.

Read the full story at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/science/sci_archive/phonons2.html.

Publication about this research: E. Rotenberg, J. Schaefer, and S.D. Kevan, "Coupling between adsorbate vibrations and an electronic surface state," Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2925 (2000).

2. CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: ALS COMPENDIUM 2000
(Contact: lstamura@lbl.gov)

Every year, the ALS publishes a compendium of abstracts describing the work done, in whole or in part, at the ALS during the past calendar year. All users or user groups (including ALS staff members) should submit a one- to three-page abstract (including figures) describing each project conducted at the ALS during calendar year 2000 (January 1 to December 31), whether published, unpublished, or in progress. The submission deadline is January 22, 2001. Detailed information on submitting abstracts can be found online at http://alspubs.lbl.gov/Compendium_old. Users in our database will receive notices by email; a packet containing a hardcopy submission form, author guidelines, and file specifications will also be mailed out in the next few days.

The abstracts received will be published on a CD that will be included in the back of the 2001 ALS Activity Report. The abstracts will also be added to the searchable database of abstracts available on our Web site at http://alspubs.lbl.gov/compendium. Like last year, we will again accept electronic files in a number of formats, preferably PDF; hardcopy submissions are no longer necessary. The ALS thanks you for your cooperation in this effort to demonstrate the breadth, depth, and importance of the ALS scientific program. If you have any questions, please contact Lori Tamura by email (lstamura@lbl.gov), fax (510-495-2111), or phone (510-486-6172).

3. LAB TO CLOSE DURING HOLIDAYS
(Contact: gfkrebs@lbl.gov)

Everyone at Berkeley Lab, including the ALSNews editors, will take a much-needed break for the holidays. The Lab will shut down on the evening of December 21 and reopen on the morning of January 2. The last user run of 2000 is scheduled for December 19 - 21; the first user run of 2001 will be January 5 - 8. The next issue of ALSNews will be published on January 17. During the holiday closure, the Lab will shut down as much heating and ventilating equipment as possible to reduce costs. However, power will be maintained in Building 6. Anyone having to work on site during this time will need a current ID badge and parking permit to gain access. The User Services Office will provide badging only until 4 p.m. on December 21. Unbadged visitors must have been verified and cleared through the gate by an appropriate host prior to entry. We wish you all a pleasant and relaxing holiday season.

4. VIRTUAL HELICOPTER TRIP FEATURED ON ALS WEB SITE
(Contact: amgreiner@lbl.gov)

Grab a couple of motion sickness pills and fasten your seat belt; click a button and take a helicopter ride to the ALS via the QuickTime video clip currently featured on the ALS Web site at http://www-als.lbl.gov (the video will eventually be permanently located on the "About the ALS" page at http://www-als.lbl.gov/als/aboutals/index.html). Shot by Berkeley Lab photographer Roy Kaltschmidt, the video sequence begins beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, buzzes over the skyscrapers of San Francisco, follows the Bay Bridge to Berkeley, and ultimately winds up hovering over the ALS dome. Play the video at normal speed or click through frame by frame to catch every detail of this scenic ride. If only every trip across the bay were this easy! The file is 2.2 MB. The QuickTime player can be downloaded for free at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download.

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

New candidates for the UEC have been selected, and you should be receiving ballots the first week of January. Please make sure to vote for four new UEC members. The candidates for election have been chosen to represent all fields of research and include student and postdoc users of the ALS.

On behalf of the UEC, I would like to wish you a very happy holiday season!!!

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

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

Beamline 1.4.3
T.J. Wilkinson and Dale Perry (Berkeley Lab)
Sherry Zhang and Phil Ross (Berkeley Lab)
James Chesko (Chiron Corporation)
Hoi-Ying Holman (Berkeley Lab)
Mary Kauffman (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory)

Beamline 8.0.1
Tom Callcott (Univ. of Tennessee)
Dave Ederer (Tulane Univ.)
Yasuji Muramatsu (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.)

Beamline 9.0.2
Fei Qi, Paul Regan, Musa Ahmed (Berkeley Lab)
Tao Zhang, Ximei Qian (Iowa State Univ.)
Tom Baer (Univ. of North Carolina)
Darcy Peterka (Univ. of California, Berkeley)

Beamline 10.0.1
X.J. Zhou (Berkeley Lab)
Ronald Phaneuf (Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas)
Atsushi Fujimori (Univ. of Tokyo)

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

For the user runs of November 29 - December 3 and December 5 - 10, the beam availability was 99%. Of the scheduled beam, 94% was delivered to completion without interruption. 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 Bruce Samuelson (BCSamuelson@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.