New experimental capabilities and new technologies took a bow as the resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) beamline on Sector 27 of the APS came to life.
Sector 27, which is under the Inelastic X-ray Scattering & Nuclear Resonant Scattering (IXN) Group led by Thomas Gog in the Argonne X-ray Science Division (XSD) at the APS, has been newly constructed as the RIXS-only beamline for the APS user community. Previously, the RIXS community had been using both the Sector 30 and Sector 9 beamlines. Now, Sector 27 will consolidate all RIXS efforts at the APS on one dedicated, optimized, state-of-the-art insertion device beamline, offering enhanced energy resolution and x-ray intensities, combined with advanced beam focusing and a comprehensive suite of sample environments for meaningful in situ experimentation. The new beamline will support the study of complex materials of high technological and fundamental importance, including 5d-transition-metal-oxides, iridates, osmates, rheniates, and others where a treasure trove of novel phenomena are expected, such as topological band or Mott insulators, quantum spin liquids, field-induced topological order, and topological superconductors.
The APS Sector 30 insertion device beamline had been dual purpose, serving both the resonant and non-resonant inelastic x-ray scattering communities; Sector 30 will now be a dedicated, high-energy resolution inelastic x-ray scattering beamline featuring the HERIX diffractometer and two new, 1.72-cm-period undulators, the shortest-period undulators designed and built at the APS. These undulators are capable of producing 23.7-keV x-rays in the first harmonic and almost double the incident flux for the photon-hungry HERIX instrument.
At 27-ID, measurement of the beam properties showed excellent performance in critical x-ray beam qualities of flux, size, divergence, and throughput. The beamline is now accepting general users and a number of RIXS experiments have already been conducted, including part of a ground-breaking study on quantum spin liquids (Nature Phys. 11, 462 2015), according to Gog.
The new beamline has a new front-end for increased power, and a novel hard x-ray beam position monitoring system developed by APS staff.
Correspondence: Thomas Gog, gog@aps.anl.gov
The Advanced Photon Source is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
Argonne National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
This project was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. The APS is a user facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
A version of this article appeared as an Advanced Photon Source facility information page in the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation.