Largest International X-ray Laser Facility Open to Users
will allow users to take clear snapshots of ultrafast processes such as chemical reactions as they take place.
STFC’s Matthew Hart, the lead engineer who has worked on the LPD since 2007, said: “It’s such a great feeling to see the detector installed ready for experiments. It’s taken 10 years of development to meet some really challenging requirements and fi nally the day has arrived to see it working for real.”
In addition to the LPD from its Technology Division, STFC’s Central Laser Facility
is currently building a DiPOLE100 laser for the European XFEL (directly funded by STFC and EPSRC), where it will be used to recreate the conditions found within stars.
Handing over the keys to the Large Pixel Detector, from left to right: STFC Technology Department Division Head Marcus French, European XFEL Detector Group Leader Dr Markus Kuster, European XFEL Managing Director Professor Dr Robert Feidenhans’l and STFC Application Engineer Matthew Hart. (Credit: European XFEL).
The offi cial inauguration of the world’s largest X-ray laser at the European XFEL during September, marked the start of user operation at this international research centre after eight years of construction.
Located in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, European XFEL is capable of generating extremely intense X-ray laser fl ashes that will offer new research opportunities for scientists across the world.
UK scientists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) have played a signifi cant role in the creation of XFEL, by designing and developing the Large Pixel Detector (LPD) – an X-ray camera capable of capturing ultrafast processes in billionths
The European XFEL accelerator tunnel. (Credit: European XFEL)
of a second – which is the fi rst advanced detector to be installed at the Hamburg facility. The LPD was developed at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford.
Dr Brian Bowsher, Chief Executive of STFC, said: “This is a signifi cant milestone for the European XFEL and we are delighted to make such an important contribution to the project. International collaborations are key to developing these state-of-the-art facilities and this work reinforces the international role STFC and the UK has in science. It’s an extremely exciting time for the XFEL facility, and I am looking forward to seeing the fi rst experiments taking place.”
The LPD is the fi rst fully functional X-ray light detector to record at a rate of 4.5 MHz—4.5 million pictures per second, fast enough to keep up with the European XFEL’s high repetition rate of 27,000 pulses per second, which are arranged into short bursts. The LPD
The UK will soon be extending its relationship with XFEL by signing a partnership agreement, allowing UK researchers access to the facility through an STFC-managed subscription. The formal procedures of accession for the UK to join XFEL are underway. In anticipation of this being completed in the coming months the UK has already contributed the majority of its commitment towards the construction costs of the facility.
Dr Brian Bowsher, Chief Executive of STFC, said: “The UK, through STFC, is already contributing a great deal to this project in terms of equipment and expertise and we are looking forward to ratifying formally the UK’s involvement in XFEL. XFEL offers many exciting opportunities to the research community and STFC is delighted to support the UK’s involvement with this international facility. Being asked to design and build signifi cant technological infrastructure for XFEL is recognition of the leading reputation STFC’s technology and engineering teams have on the world’s stage.”
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Beamline 121 Welcomes First Users
and international community, we are extremely pleased to celebrate fi rst users on I21,” says Laurent Chapon, Physical Sciences Director at Diamond. “Dr Kejin Zhou and his team, Diamond’s engineers and all support groups have worked incredibly hard to deliver this new beamline with an energy resolution and count rates already very close to the expected fi nal targets. This is just the start of a great adventure and we are looking forward to exploiting I21’s high- resolution for measurements of local and collective excitations in solid state materials. Our future investments to extend the energy range as well as delivering a polarimeter will reinforce the position of I21 as a world-leading facility.”
The 121 beamline with its fi rst users from the University of Bristol
An important milestone for Diamond’s Inelastic X-ray beamline 121 was reached in early October as its fi rst users were welcomed at the Harwell-based facility. This new beamline is dedicated to Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering (RIXS) producing highly monochromatised, focused and tunable X-rays. It is suited to investigate the electronic, magnetic and lattice dynamics of samples particularly those with magnetic and electronic interactions.
“Considering the exceptional progress of the RIXS technique in the last few years and the unique capabilities that I21 will offer to our UK
Principal Beamline Scientist, Kejin Zhou, said: “We are delighted to welcome the fi rst users to Diamond’s RIXS beamline. All that has been achieved is as a result of the hard work from the entire team both on the beamline and at Diamond as a whole.”
“Having accompanied the development of I21 as project sponsor, I am thrilled to see this fantastic instrument starting to produce world-class science,” said Jorg Zegenhagen, Physical Science Coordinator at Diamond.
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Strategic Partnership aims to Advance Materials Characterisation
Zeiss Microscopy business group has signed an exclusive strategic partnership agreement with Denmark-based Xnovo Technology ApS, a company that develops innovative software-based 3D X-ray imaging and analysis solutions. The two companies have already been working together over the past two years, to further advancement and expansion of the laboratory-based diffraction contrast tomography technique, commercialised as LabDCT, on Zeiss Xradia 520 Versa.
The module non-destructively obtains 3D crystallographic information from polycrystalline samples which can provide new possibilities for characterising damage, deformation and growth phenomena in 3D materials science in the laboratory.
The development of new materials needed in frontiering fi elds such as metals for additive manufacturing, alloys for bioengineering, or the high-strength-to-weight materials required by aerospace and automotive industries, requires the use of an expanding set of new research techniques.
elmi2018: Dublin
The 18th European Light Microscopy Initiative, will be held at University College Dublin on 5th – 8th June. The scientifi c sessions for the elmi2018 programme have been selected to help showcase the research in some of the emerging and rapidly-developing areas of optical microscopy, whilst allowing those working on the fringes the opportunity to submit their work to what is set to be a great conference.
Abstract submission for both oral and poster presentation is currently open with the deadline in January 2018.
Sessions include: Super-resolution - Session Organisers: Sebastian Munck, Susan Cox. Light Sheet Microscopy and in vivo Imaging - Session Organisers: Peter O’Toole, Susan Cox. Approaches in Correlative Microscopy - Session Organisers: Peter O’Toole, Dimitri Scholz. Single Molecule - Session Organisers: Heinz Peter Nasheuer, Dunja Skoko, Oliver Blacque. Frontiers in Imaging Analysis - Session Organisers: Susan Cox, Jez Simpson, Sebastian Munck. Frontiers in Imaging, Probes and Label Free - Session Organisers: Dimitri Scholz, Dunja Skoko, Gail McConnell.
The Plenary Speaker, Professor Scott E. Fraser of the University of Southern California, will open elmi2018 on the evening of Monday 4 June following the Core Facilities satellite meeting earlier in the day. Professor Fraser is an expert in quantitative biology, applying the tools of chemistry, engineering, and physics to problems in biology and medicine. His personal research centres on imaging and molecular analyses of intact biological systems, with an emphasis on early development, organogenesis, and medical diagnostics. He currently uses a range of technologies in his work from conventional light microscopy and laser scanning microscopy, to optical coherence tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) microscopy.
Other invited speakers will be announced online as they are confi rmed. An exhibition and workshops will run alongside the conference showcasing the latest in products and applications. Bookings for space can be made online. For further details visit
www.rms.org
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Erik Mejdal Lauridsen, CEO and founder of Xnovo, a spin-out of the Technical University of Denmark, says, “We felt we could really accelerate the fi eld of materials science by commercialising our discoveries. Through our partnership with Zeiss, our aspirations are fi nally becoming a reality.”
Lourens Steger, Head of the product centre X-ray microscopy at Zeiss, noted, “At Zeiss, we work diligently to understand the job our customer needs to do and invest in innovation to ensure their success. We look forward to working with Xnovo to develop important new analytical capabilities for our 3D X-ray microscopes.”
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