BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS 

It’s been a good month here at the APS. Beam is back in our brand-new storage ring. Beam current is slowly ramping up, and beamlines are gradually coming online. Most importantly, though, the first full user run of the upgraded APS era began on September 16. Our doors have re-opened, and initial science is happening at this updated facility.

This is an important milestone, even if we only have a limited number of beamlines operating at this time. (The chart showing where each beamline is in the process of returning to operation is below, and on the APS Upgrade web page.) From the start of this project more than a decade ago, the goal has always been to offer the best, most comprehensive X-ray capabilities possible to our user community. It’s such a good feeling to see users back on the experiment floor and to know that the best is yet to come for them.

Work is progressing well on our suite of new feature beamlines. The X-ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy (XPCS) station at 8-ID will be the first to welcome users. Other feature beamlines aren’t far behind, including Coherent Surface Scattering Imaging (CSSI) at 9-ID, Polarization Modulation Spectroscopy (POLAR) at 4-ID and the In Situ Nanoprobe (ISN) and the High-Energy X-ray Microscope (HEXM) in the Long Beamline Building, all of which are expected to see their first lights during this run cycle.

elow are some photos of work on the shielded transport that protects the long beamline on its way to the ISN station at 19-ID.

You can see in some of these photos that the walkway by sectors 19 and 20 is now blocked off by the long beamlines for ISN and HEXM. We have installed stairs and an elevator to carry people and equipment over the beam pipes. I know some users like to walk or ride tricycles around the ring when visiting the APS, and I’m sorry that the full circuit is no longer possible. But the extraordinary science that will come out of ISN and HEXM is more than a fair tradeoff.

One more thing happened this month: Laurent Chapon, associate laboratory director for photon sciences and director of the APS, took the reins as director of the APS Upgrade Project. Thanks again to Jim Kerby for his years of leadership, and thanks to Laurent as he brings the project in for a landing over the coming months.

It’s an exciting time, and it will only get more exciting as more beamlines take photons and more users return to the experiment hall. As always, the most up-to-date information on the upgrade is available on the website. Until next month, be safe.

Sincerely,
Jonathan Lang
Director, X-ray Science Division