This month, I am pleased to report the big news that the Advanced Photon Source (APS) accelerator team has achieved the full design beam current of 200 milliamps (mA) in the upgraded electron storage ring. This is one of the final goals of the APS Upgrade project and ensures that we can deliver to you the best and brightest synchrotron X-ray beams in the world.

It has been quite a journey to 200 mA. The first electrons were circulated in the upgraded storage ring in April of last year, and we achieved 25 mA of beam current shortly thereafter. Since then, we have been gradually increasing the current, and when beam returned after our winter shutdown on January 27, we were able to begin the user run at 180 mA. On February 4, we hit the goal of 200 mA, and will be running at or near this current until mid-March when we transition to timing operations.

This achievement is another signpost on the road toward this summer’s anticipated completion of the APS Upgrade project. As you can see on the beamline progress chart below, we're making great progress on restarting beamlines: we now have 50 in some stage of commissioning and 11 accepting users and hosting experiments. Five of our new feature beamlines are in commissioning, with one of them — X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) at 8-ID — working with users for the first time.

The first user run of 2025 is in full swing. Enjoy some photos of users back in action at the upgraded APS:

We have had a few setbacks as well this month, including some issues that led to a loss of beam for a few days. None of this is out of the ordinary for a new machine of this scope and complexity, and the APS team has, as always, worked together to overcome any obstacles. Our mission is to deliver to you the best X-ray beam and the most sophisticated scientific instrumentation possible for your research.

One more thing to mention this month: Registration is now open for the 2025 APS/CNM Users Meeting, scheduled for May 5 – 9. We’re back to holding this meeting in person, so just like last year, it will take place at Building 401 on the Argonne site, right here at the APS. Registration is open until April 21. We hope to see you here in May.

Until next month,
Jonathan Lang
Director, X-ray Science Division