APS User News-at-a-Glance
Issue 27: September 1, 2004

1. Message from Murray
2. Argonne Opens Lab Supercomputing Resource to APS Users
3. Research Highlight: X-Rayed Movie Of Electron Motion
4. Reorganized APS Group Offers More Operational Support for Beamlines, Users
5. Strategic Summer: Summary of Geneva Workshops, Part 2
6. Briefly Noted (proposal deadline, General User program assessment, APS user wins Argonne named postdoctoral fellowship, 2005 fellowship deadline, SAC chairman Michael Rowe honored)
7. Administrative Dates and Deadlines

1. Message from Murray
(Contact: Murray Gibson, jmgibson@aps.anl.gov)

The X-ray Operations and Research (XOR) organization within the Advanced Photon Source represents all the beamline operations and research for which the APS is directly responsible. When I first joined the APS in October 2001, four sectors were within the purview of the APS (those formerly known as the Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation Collaborative Access Team). Today APS manages eleven sectors, and we expect at least three more to be added in the next three years. In the coming months we will provide you with individual updates on each of these sectors. For now, here is a list of the current XOR sectors and the Collaborative Access and Collaborative Development Teams (CAT/CDTs) associated with them: Sectors 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 (IMM), 8 (MHATT), 11 (BESSRC), 12 (BESSRC), 20 (PNC), 26 (Nano CDT), and 30 (IXS CDT). (A collaborative development team is an external partner group that drives the development of a beamline but when operations begin, transitions responsibility to the APS.)

Our increased responsibility results from policy changes by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences at the Department of Energy (DOE-BES), which funds the operating budget of the APS and also many physical sciences beamlines at the APS. The new DOE-BES policy aims to have the facility provide support for beamlines that were previously funded by DOE-BES. The policy offers the attraction of more stable and efficient operational support and the evolution of dedicated beamlines. While recognizing the wisdom on this new policy, we at APS believe it is critically important to retain the involvement of our external partners, and our new partner user system is designed to accomplish this goal.

2. Argonne Opens Lab Supercomputing Resource to APS Users
(Contact: Ray Bair, Argonne LCRC, aps-request@lcrc.anl.gov)

Argonne 's terascale computing cluster, Jazz, is now available to APS users, and the facility invites proposals from users for CPU time in FY05. Proposals for projects requiring more than 1000 CPU hours are due by September 15 to be considered in the scheduling process; proposals for shorter projects may be submitted at any time. There is no cost to use Jazz, but users are requested to include an acknowledgment in related publications and to complete a brief annual project report.

Jazz is a 350-node computing cluster running 2.4 GHz Pentium Xeon processors connected by both Myrinet 2000 and Fast Ethernet networks. It is operated by Argonne 's Laboratory Computing Resource Center (LCRC). The Center staff are available for consultation on technical questions, training, and code modifications. More information about LCRC and Jazz can be found at http://www.lcrc.anl.gov /, including system specifications and software packages available to all users.

Announcement from LCRC: http://www.aps.anl.gov/user/news/news_27_att1.html.

Full Project request form (> 1000 hours): http://www.aps.anl.gov/user/news/news_27_att2.html.

Startup Project request form (< 1000 hours): https://accounts.lcrc.anl.gov/request.php .

3. Research Highlight: X-rayed Movie of Electron Motion
(Contact: Peter Abbamonte, abbamonte@bnl.gov)

A research team using the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source and the Complex Materials Consortium sector 9 beamline at the Advanced Photon Source has produced the fastest movies ever made of electron motion. Created by scattering x-rays off water, the movies show electrons sloshing in water molecules, and each frame lasts just 4 attoseconds (quintillionths of a second). The results were published in the 11 June 2004 Physical Review Letters. The team's new techniques could let researchers "watch" chemical reactions even faster than those viewable with today's "ultrafast" pulsed lasers.

Full story and animations: http://focus.aps.org/story/v13/st25

4. Reorganized APS Group Offers More Operational Support for Beamlines, Users
(Contact: Patricia Fernandez, fernandz@aps.anl.gov)

In April 2004, two APS groups merged to form the Experiment Operations Support (EOS) Group, within APS Operations Division (AOD). The new group includes the floor coordinators and the members of the former Beamline Technical Support Group. The c onsolidation of these resources will allow AOD to provide more efficient and effective user support.

The EOS group is responsible for providing 24-hour coverage on the experiment hall floor and is the first point of contact for resolving beamline operational issues. The group also has a strong safety oversight role, managing shielding configuration control for all beamlines and verifying compliance with the experiment safety review process and with APS/ANL/DOE safety regulations. EOS also provides user support on a daily basis: among other responsibilities, the group operates the APS detector pool, monitors user construction projects, and serves as the point of contact for APS, Argonne , and contractor services available to users.

5. Strategic Summer: Summary of Lake Geneva Workshops, Part 2
(Inquiries: Bonnie Meyer, bsm@aps.anl.gov)

The last four of nine “future directions” workshops will be held August 29-September 1 at Lake Geneva , in conjunction with the APS strategic planning meeting. Comments and inquiries can be sent to Bonnie Meyer, bsm@aps.anl.gov. This article provides a précis of these remaining workshops. Sessions have already been held on the following topics:

• Future Directions in Synchrotron Environmental Science
• Frontier Science Using Soft X-Rays at the APS
• Emerging Areas in Biological Crystallography
• Science with High-Energy X-rays
• Membrane Science

More information on all the workshops is available at
http://www.future.aps.anl.gov/Future/future.htm

Emerging Scientific Opportunities Using X-ray Imaging
Chairs: Francesco De Carlo, Wah Keat Lee, Gabrielle Long, Stuart Stock
Details

A large portfolio of imaging techniques is now available at third-generation synchrotron radiation facilities. Some of these techniques are qualitative, but many others (e.g., using over sampling or certain types of tomographic measurements) offer quantitative extraction of the phase. The impact of such imaging tools on science and engineering is growing. Just as 3D absorption imaging revolutionized clinical medicine, the advent of new hard x-ray imaging techniques will profoundly improve process development, failure analysis, and materials metrology. The future is promising for nondestructive investigations, down to scales below 100 nm, of the critical structures responsible for the properties and performance of next generation materials. Recent interest from scientists in many fields such as paleontology, agriculture, and biology argues favorably for the need for dedicated hard x-ray imaging capabilities to be available at the Advanced Photon Source. The link above includes a listing of imaging capabilities at the APS.

Time Domain Science Using X-ray Techniques
Chairs: Lin Chen, David Reis, Linda Young, Steve Milton
Details

In ongoing and anticipated time-domain scientific experiments using hard x-rays from synchrotron radiation sources, the time scales range from sub-picoseconds to thousands of seconds—16 to17 decades of spread. Established synchrotron techniques can often provide new information if they are performed to understand time-dependent processes. For example, when used as a probe in “pump-probe” experiments, such techniques provide insight into the non-equilibrium response of the system to the excitation as a function of time. Time-resolved experiments at a storage ring can be broadly classified as follows:

• Pump-probe experiments synchronized with the storage ring filling pattern.
• Pump-probe experiments without storage ring synchronization
• Frequency domain experiments
• Experiments that measure space and time auto correlation

The workshop will address the potential of time-resolved synchrotron studies in four areas:

• Atomic, molecular, and nuclear sciences
• Chemical and biological sciences
• Condensed matter physics and material sciences
• Accelerator physics to address delivery of picosecond x-ray pulses at the APS

Mesoscopic and Nanoscopic Science
Chairs: Sunil Sinha, Eric Isaacs
Details

In materials with nanoscopic to mesoscopic dimensions, the interplay of confinement, proximity and organization is the key in realizing materials with novel and unpredicted behavior. A key target for materials research is to understand, control, and tailor material properties with a view to control phenomena on the nanometer to micrometer length scale and femtosecond to second time scale. Progress in the field of nanoscale materials is intimately related to development of analytical techniques that enable us to examine the atomic and electronic structure of materials at the nanoscale and unravel and quantitatively analyze condensed matter phenomena and processes. The focus of this workshop is to identify the frontier problems in understanding interfacial structures, nano-systems, confinement, and self-assembly of hard materials, soft materials, and biomaterials, and to assess the applicability of hard x-ray tools available at the third generation synchrotron radiation sources in addressing these problems. The topics for the workshop are:

1. Carbon nanotubes and related structures
2. Molecular electronics
3. Quantum phase transitions
4. Micro- and nano-fluidics, nano-jets
5. Granular materials
6. Polymer nanoarrays, polymer/metal, and metal/semiconductor nanocomposites
7. Biomolecules and optical tweezers
8. Self assembly, organization, and reorganization

Nanomagnetism Using X-ray Techniques
Chairs: Sam Bader, Laura Lewis, George Srajer
Details

Many exciting technological and basic science questions require exploration of magnetic interactions at surfaces, interfaces, and in reduced dimensions. Examples include ultra thin films, atomic and molecular chains, quantum wires and dots, ad atoms, and small atomic or molecular clusters. Recent investigations using the x–rays techniques at synchrotron radiation facilities have included studies of induced magnetism at interfaces, structural and magnetic roughness, magnetic interactions in artificially structured heterostructures, and depth-resolved magnetic structures in multilayers.

Several techniques are currently being applied to investigate nanomagnetic systems; these include circular magnetic x-ray dichroism, magnetic microscopy, spin-polarized photoemission, magnetic x-ray absorption fine structure, nuclear resonant scattering, and magnetic resonant x-ray scattering. This workshop will look at how such techniques could evolve to meet new challenges and scientific opportunities in this field. Breakout sessions will address developments and challenges in

• Molecular magnets
• Laterally confined structures
• Nanoscale phase-separated systems

6. Briefly Noted

General User and Partner User Program deadline is October 29; APSUO undertakes assessment of General User Program

Just a reminder: The next General User and Partner User deadline is Friday, October 29, for beam time in Run 2005-1 (late January-April). For General User questions, contact Elane Streets, estreets@aps.anl.gov or 630-252-4460. For Partner User questions, contact Susan Strasser, strasser@aps.anl.gov or 630-252-5981.

At the request of APS management, the APS Users Organization will be assessing the strengths and weaknesses of our General User Program. Recommendations for changes and improvements will be evaluated, and a report will be given at the 2005 Users Meeting. Members of the assessment committee include Keith Brister, (brister@cars.udchicago.edu), Steve Ginell (ginell@anl.gov), Thomas Gog (gog@anl.gov), Tim Graber (graber@cars.uchicago.edu), and Mark Rivers (rivers@cars.uchicago.edu). Please feel free to share any comments, concerns, or recommendations for additional committee members with them.

APS user wins Argonne named postdoctoral fellowship

APS user Jake Socha has been awarded the Ugo Fano Postdoctoral Fellowship at Argonne in recognition of his science expertise and research promise. Socha will be in the Experimental Facilities Division at the Advanced Photon Source.

Socha earned his Ph.D. in biomechanics from the University of Chicago . His work focused on a species of snake in Singapore called the flying snake. He used 3-D mapping and aerodynamic modeling to find out how this snake manages to sail through the air. Some of his results are posted on his Web site at flyingsnake.org.

At Argonne , his team is studying the internal mechanics of beetles to understand how they breathe. By immobilizing and x-raying the insects, they hope to learn how a network of respiratory tubes conducts gas exchange through the insects' bodies. Such research may have potential in agricultural pest control.

The fellowship is one of four named to honor scientific and technical luminaries associated with Argonne, its predecessors, and the University of Chicago since the 1940s. Ugo Fano was a University of Chicago physics professor whose pioneering contributions to the theory of atomic and radiation physics helped lead to the development of the gas laser and the use of radiation in medical diagnosis and therapy.

Applications sought for Argonne postdoctoral fellowships

Argonne National Laboratory invites applications for four named postdoctoral fellowships. The award is $70,000 for two years, with up to an additional $20,000 a year in travel and research support. Applications are due November 12; details are available on the Argonne home page (http://www.anl.gov/Careers/namedpostdocs.html).

Michael Rowe, APS Scientific Advisory Committee Chairman, awarded 2004 Clifford G. Shull Prize

The Neutron Scattering Society of America has recognized Michael Rowe “for his seminal vision, leadership, and contributions to the field of neutron scattering" naming him the first recipient of the Clifford G. Shull Prize in Neutron Science. Dr. Rowe is the chairman of the APS Scientific Advisory Committee.

The prize is named in honor of Prof. Clifford G. Shull, who received the Nobel Prize in 1994 with Prof. Bertram Brockhouse for seminal developments in the field of neutron science.  

Early in his career, Mike Rowe was at the forefront of research on the dynamics, structure and fundamental properties of materials, including influential work on hydrogen in metals, orientationally disordered solids and monatomic liquids. In addition, he has made significant contributions to the development of inelastic spectrometers and other instruments that utilize cold neutrons and is a leader in the design of the latest generation cold neutron sources, including the most efficient hydrogen cold source currently operating in the world at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). Dr. Rowe's talents and his profound impact on American neutron science go far beyond his individual contributions to research and instrumentation.  Through his leadership and engineering creativity over the past 15 years, the NCNR has become the most important and widely used neutron facility thus far developed in the United States .  Dr. Rowe received his PhD in 1966 from McMaster University , where he worked with Nobel Laureate B.N. Brockhouse. From 1966-72 he worked at Argonne National Lab before joining the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) in 1973.

7. Administrative Dates and Deadlines

A listing of technical meetings and workshops is available on the APS home page (http://aps.anl.gov) under the heading Meetings, Etc.

*New entry since last issue

Proposal system -- http://beam.aps.anl.gov/pls/apsweb/gup0005.start_page
Ops. monthly meetings -- http://www.aps.anl.gov/aps/meetings/monthly_meetings.html

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