1. ATOMIC HOLOGRAMS SUCCESSFULLY OBTAINED
(Contacts: smarchesini@lbl.gov, fadley@photon.lbl.gov)

At Beamline 9.3.1, a group led by Stefano Marchesini (Materials Sciences Division, Berkeley Lab) has demonstrated the feasibility of performing x-ray fluorescence holography (XFH) experiments at the ALS. XFH is a newly developed, element-specific probe of atomic structure that overcomes the so-called "phase problem" of conventional x-ray diffraction by extracting information on the phase as well as the amplitude of the diffracted field. Such experiments can be carried out in two modes: one in which the modulation of an outgoing fluorescence signal is measured as a function of direction (often termed simply XFH), and one in which the modulation of the ingoing beam is measured as a function of direction and perhaps also energy (often termed multi-energy x-ray holography, or MEXH). Both types of experiments are challenging in that they require the accurate measurement of modulations that are on the order of a few tenths of a percent, and so far only about five groups worldwide are doing such studies. An April 2001 article in Physics Today (Vol. 54, No. 4) discusses these and other types of atomic holography.

The system constructed at Beamline 9.3.1 has been designed to carry out MEXH experiments, which are inherently faster, more accurate, and more versatile. The apparatus makes use of a special rapid rotation of the specimen to more efficiently average over various sources of noise, and it has been possible in a first set of demonstration experiments to accurately image the positions of the Mn atoms in a MnO single crystal. Holograms and holographic images, including a movie of the rotating Mn atom structure, can be seen at http://electron.lbl.gov/marchesini/als/indexnew.html. Future applications of this new facility will include studies of strongly correlated materials, magnetic materials, quasicrystals, and model compounds of biological interest. Collaborating on this work were S. Marchesini, L. Zhao, N. Mannella, M.W. West, M.J. Press, L. Fabris, J. Bucher, D.K. Shuh, W.C. Stolte, A.S. Schlachter, Z. Hussain, and C.S. Fadley.

2. CRYSTALLOGRAPHY ROBOT DEBUTS IN SCIENCE MAGAZINE
(Contact: TNEarnest@lbl.gov)

"Crystals in, structures out." This vision of a fully automated process for solving protein structures is now one step closer to reality with the first trial runs of a robotic crystal-mounting and alignment system on Beamline 5.0.3. These groundbreaking initial tests were reported in the News section of the April 13, 2001, issue of Science (Vol. 292, No. 5515). The system is being developed as a collaboration between the Berkeley Center for Structural Biology, Berkeley Lab's Bioinstrumention Group, the biotech company Syrrx, and the private research institute GNF (Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation). Funding for the project comes from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (one of the National Institutes of Health), including a recent award to continue development of the "robohutch," and from Syrrx though the operational support of Beamline 5.0.3. Funding for the construction and operation of Beamline 5.0.3 comes from GNF and Syrrx, both of La Jolla, California.

Robotic crystallization of proteins has been pioneered at Berkeley Lab over the past four years. The crystallography robot is designed so that it can be programmed to select from up to 64 protein crystals and then mount, align, test, and collect data from each. Cryofrozen crystals can be sent to the facility for automated data collection. It is estimated that, by automating these and other related functions, researchers would be able to solve protein structures up to 10 times faster than the current rate. Such an acceleration will be necessary for the success of research programs that aim to elucidate the structure and function of tens of thousands of proteins over the next five to ten years. In addition to the robot, the automation system will eventually include analysis software to process the huge amounts of data collected. The projected completion date for the full system is 2003.

3. EUV PARTNERS ANNOUNCE CHIP-MAKING PROTOTYPE
(Contact: DTAttwood@lbl.gov)

A group of computer industry leaders in cooperation with government laboratories recently announced the completion of the first full-scale prototype machine that uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography to print integrated circuit patterns onto computer chips. EUV Limited Liability Company (EUV LLC) members Intel, Motorola, Advanced Micro Devices, Micron, Infineon, and IBM partnered with Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley, and Sandia National Laboratories to develop the technology required to continue the current pace of microchip improvement through the next decade. Computer processors produced with EUV technology are expected to be tens of times faster than today's most powerful chips, with similar increases in the storage capacity of memory chips. The prototype chip maker demonstrates all the critical capabilities required for making the next generation of computer chips with EUV light. It will be used during the next year to refine the technology and develop prototype commercial machines that meet industry requirements for high-volume chip production.

Contributing to the success of this important milestone were teams working at three beamlines at the ALS, under the auspices of Berkeley Lab's Center for X-Ray Optics. At Beamline 6.3.2, work focused on measuring the reflectivity and uniformity of multilayered molybdenum-silicon coatings, which are central to the EUV lithography process. Beamline 11.3.2 was dedicated to finding tiny defects in lithography masks, a task equivalent to searching for a golf ball in an area the size of Rhode Island. Finally, because EUV lithography places extremely high demands on the fabrication of EUV mirror substrates and multilayer coatings, the interferometer at Beamline 12.0.1, touted as the most accurate wavefront-measuring device in the world, was indispensable for characterizing and predicting the performance of the precision optics critical to EUV lithography.

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

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

Beamline 1.4.2
Chris Weber and Joe Orenstein (Univ. of California, Berkeley, and Berkeley Lab)

Beamline 1.4.3
Jani Ingram (Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory)
Hoi-Ying Holman (Berkeley Lab)
Ted Raab (Univ. of Colorado at Boulder)
Ronald Brudler (The Scripps Research Institute)

Beamline 5.3.1
Marcus Hertlein, Ali Belkacem, Ernie Glover, Mike Prior, Glenn Ackerman, and Juergen Roesch (Berkeley Lab)

Beamline 7.3.1.1
Simone Anders (IBM Almaden Research Center)
Kai Starke (Freie Univ. Berlin)
Denis Usov (Institute of Polymer Research, Dresden, Germany)

Beamline 7.3.3
Greg Hura (Berkeley Lab)

Beamline 8.0.1
Satish Myneni (Princeton Univ.)
Anders Nilsson (Stanford Univ. and Uppsala Univ., Sweden)
Christoph Bostedt (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

Beamline 10.0.1
R. Phaneuf and colleagues (Univ. Nevada, Reno)
Z.X. Shen, X. Zhou, and colleagues (Stanford Univ.)
N. Berrah (Western Michigan Univ.)

Beamline 10.3.1
Claudine Chen (California Institute of Technology)

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

For the user runs of April 3-8 (1.5 GeV), 11-15 (1.9 GeV), and 16-22 (1.9 GeV), the beam reliability (time delivered/time scheduled) was 98%. Of the scheduled beam, 89% 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.

LBNL/PUB-848
Editors: lstamura@lbl.gov, alrobinson@lbl.gov, amgreiner@lbl.gov

This work was supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098.