A world record and a farewell
If you follow our long-range schedule on the APS website, you know that we’ve begun the first planned shutdown of the upgraded APS era. For the next few weeks, we’ll be fine-tuning the new storage ring and preparing beamlines for commissioning as we head into our first general user run this fall.
Before we shut the beam down, however, we were able to take a detailed measurement of the electron beam emittance, and I’m happy to announce that we have achieved a world record low horizontal emittance of 45 pm.rad in low-coupling mode and 31 pm.rad with round beam. This is a tremendous milestone for the upgrade project, and further proof that the upgraded APS is a world-leading facility for our users.
It’s a very exciting time as we get ready to make the new machine available and start to see what you’ll do with it. In fact, with two beamlines in scientific commissioning, we’ve already had our first external users of the upgraded APS. We hosted a team from Pohang University of Science and Technology at the 27-ID Resonant Inelastic X-ray Spectroscopy (RIXS) beamline, and a student from the University of Alabama in Birmingham at the 3-ID Nuclear Resonant Scattering beamline.
Seeing users return to the APS has been invigorating. As you can see from our beamline progress graphic, we now have 19 beamlines in various stages of commissioning, and we’ll be spending the shutdown getting many more ready for X-ray beams. This graphic has now been posted to the APS Upgrade web page, and will be updated weekly, so you can follow the progress between our monthly Upgrade Updates.
Below are a few photos from recent work to bring our first feature beamline, the X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) at 8-ID, online.
One person who won’t be here when users return is APS Upgrade Project Director Jim Kerby, who is leaving Argonne after 12 years to lead Fermilab’s flagship neutrino project. Jim asked to say a few words to bid farewell to the APS user community.
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye…
I’m not much of a Sound of Music fan actually – though some in my family are – but after 12 years at Argonne National Laboratory and the Advanced Photon Source it’s time for me to move on.
It’s been an incredible journey from the original concept of the Upgrade, through a renewal in response to the BESAC vision in 2013, and then through all design and development phases, baselining, execution, installation and now commissioning. This included the efforts of more than a thousand people across the world, contributing in all sorts of manners. The Upgrade was fortunate to stand on the shoulders of giants in our field, including the team already at Argonne, but in addition brought in new staff who brought with them new ideas, new skills, and new energy. Without this combination of everyone’s skills and efforts, the Upgrade would not have been a success.
On a related but sad note, Ed Temple, a DOE and Argonne legend, passed away last weekend. Ed was critical in completion of the original APS (among other things), but also in attracting me to Argonne. His continued encouragement to push for excellence in all phases of the project – especially including excellent people! – was something he always reminded me of. I think we managed to do that here. I say it all the time, but this team is the best.
I’m very proud of the Upgrade and look forward to reading about future world-changing results from the APS. I’m even prouder to know the people of the Advanced Photon Source, both employees and users. I wish you continued health and success in both work, and life. Be safe, be well, and be proud of what you have accomplished here, and will accomplish in the future.
Cheers,
Jim Kerby
APS Upgrade Project Director
Thank you, Jim, for your leadership over the past decade-plus, and for the large part you played in upgrading this extraordinary facility.
As usual, please visit the APS Upgrade web page for the latest information on the project. Until next month, be safe and be well.
Jonathan Lang
Director, X-ray Science Division
